


THE TWELVE LABOURS OF WONDER WOMAN

by ksennin



Series: The Erotic Adventures of Wonder Woman [3]
Category: Wonder Woman (Comics)
Genre: F/F, F/M, Multi, Mythical Beings & Creatures, Sex with Sentient Animals
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-24
Updated: 2019-05-23
Packaged: 2020-03-13 10:22:21
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 4
Words: 23,486
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18939010
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ksennin/pseuds/ksennin
Summary: To save her people from the ire of Zeus, Princess Diana must complete 12 dangerous tasks in the Netherworlds of Tartarus, testing her limits in power and sexuality. But not all is as it seems.Based upon stories by George Perez featured in the Wonder Woman comic, Volume Two, issues #16-18. Told now without any damn censoring.Features plot-based action, violence, & sexuality.





	1. PROLOGUES

**Author's Note:**

> DISCLAIMER: This story is an adult-themed parody. Wonder Woman and all related characters are property and copyright of DC Comics, a Time Warner company. Go buy their comics. No infringement is intended.
> 
> WARNING: The following story contains adult themes and explicit descriptions of extreme sexual events. NO MINOR SHOULD READ THIS. Most so-called adults shouldn't, either. If you are below your country's age of legal majority, kindly bugger off.

THE TWELVE LABOURS OF WONDER WOMAN  
by JR  
ksennin@gmail.com  
  
  
FIRST PROLOGUE: THE DEBATE  
  
  
Some places and things are states of mind, ways of thinking, ways of seeing.  
  
Depending on the chosen perspective, Love and War were abstract concepts contrasted yet interwoven in the field of metaphysical consideration, or maybe were instead anthropomorphic manifestations engaged in post-coital chit-chat on a terrace at nebulous Olympus.  
  
"My husband won't be pleased." Aphrodite smiled, long golden hair pooled all about, her beauty made even more luminous by the sheen of recent sexual exertions. "Again."  
  
Ares, Olympian god of War, shrugged. Rising from the couch, he gathered his scattered attire, which could be obsidian armor, or a designer business suit, depending on the point of view. "Never stopped you before."  
  
The goddess of Love stretched languorously, her body's contours redefining sensuality with every minor shift. "Love knows no boundaries."  
  
"And Boundaries are meant to be broken in war."  
  
"Tarry longer, lover."  
  
Ares shook his head. "I must go."  
  
"Of course. You got what you wanted already."  
  
"You wanted it, too, I recall."  
  
"I always do. Love is Want." She turned face down, one finger playing with her golden locks. "Everything is."  
  
"Everything?"  
  
"Everything is Desire. Everything is Want. Everything is Love."  
  
Ares did not find her tone amusing. Love was often selfish and petty and self-deluding. Irritating, too.  
  
"Maybe I only needed you. For a moment." He smiled. "Need is not want, Sister."  
  
"You want what you need, Brother."  
  
"The act is more important than the impulse."  
  
She smiled, arching her back fetchingly.  
  
"The act of Love. The culmination of the impulse. Both are the same."  
  
Ares sneered. "No. The act of conquest. Of victory. The basic need is just a starting point. I took you. I had you. I came, I conquered. Literally. I got what I needed. The act of taking it, that is all that really matters."  
  
"Please!" She laughed. "You did it because you desired. You desired me, my dear Brother! You desired my body. My Love."  
  
"Maybe my need was of conflict with with your lame, pathetic husband. Things have been too boring around here lately."  
  
"Even your desire for conflict, for violence, is still desire, dear Ares. In the end, you are still beholden to me, and you know it. You all are."  
  
"Insignificant. The action is the reality. The taking, the possession, the conflict of bodies, penetration, explosive culmination. It is all conflict, it is all War."  
  
"Love of War is still Love."  
  
He strode several paces away, and long shadows filled the terrace.  
  
"Dear Sister, I took you, used you, and now I leave you, as all always do. Where is your Love now? Once the act has been achieved what have you left, Sister?" His voice became gravel under a war chariot's wheels. "You are just the discarded spoils of War."  
  
"You little shit," she said, angry and hurtful, as love so often is. "You can't even understand your own desires, the ones that rule you and everyone else. Desire moves the worlds!"  
  
"I recognize desire, yes. But look about you, Sister. It only serves conflict. It serves War. It serves Me. Like you just served Me."  
  
"You served Me, Brother. You pleasured Me. You were a tool for Love. You are always a tool."  
  
"Calling what we did Love is disingenuous, poor deluded Sister. We just fucked."  
  
"It is still love, disgusting as it was."  
  
"I used you. You served Me. War rules the world!"  
  
"Only because of the dark desires in men's hearts."  
  
"It is the act of war that triumphs and rules men!"  
  
"Oh, really? Did the Princess of the Amazons not triumph over you through her loving heart?"  
  
The instant of silence was a violence in itself.  
  
"The Amazon did open my eyes, Sister, to the need for constant, perpetuating strife instead of a fruitless, single final conflict, yet she dared to face me because of her warrior's heart! Ultimately, she, too, serves War -serves Me!"  
  
"Please! My Sisters and I created the Amazons and their Princess! We endowed them! They serve us! They serve ME! Their Diana serves LOVE!"  
  
The eyes of Ares shone with blood-red light.  
  
"Care to wager?"  
  
  
  
SECOND PROLOGUE: THE REWARD  
  
  
Perennial clouds ringed the island, but directly above Themyscira the sky was clear and undisturbed, unlike the mind of the young woman strolling through the level, grass-covered field of the Amazon competition grounds.  
  
Diana, Princess of the Amazons, brushed a curling lock of lustrous black hair off her face, and looked about. Less than a year ago, at this very field, she had faced her sister amazons in athletic and martial competition. Winning the Contest against her mother's openly stated wishes, she had earned the title of Champion and the role of Envoy to Patriarch's World, so that dressed in the colors and emblems of her destination, she could leave behind the centuries-old seclusion of Themyscira, to face the larger world beyond.  
  
She had fulfilled her original task, and saved the world from the destruction planned by the God of War, but had she really been ready to know the World of Man, to live among its people? She had learned of the wonders and horrors of the so-called "modern world", where everything nominally good or evil had grown to scales far beyond what the Amazons could have ever imagined. Despite meeting new friends and allies, she had seen much that made her fear for the future, not at the whims of Lord Ares, but rather at the hands of man himself.  
  
It was all so baffling, so contradictory.  
  
But her disillusion was also personal. For a moment, she thought she had discovered what love was, the love of tales and poetry, but though she did experience the physical aspect of the union of male and female, Aphrodite's true blessing had proved elusive, and her soul ached at her failures.  
  
Was it her fault? She did what she had judged to be right, trying to make the best of difficult situations. But which had been the costs?  
  
She tried to banish from her mind the bitter-sweet image of the handsome, noble hero the world called Superman, to forget his face full of shock and rejection. But it refused to leave her, just like the memory of the touch of the dark god of Apokolips still lingered in her, its disturbing echoes deeply reverberating in her very flesh, despite all her determination to overcome such weakness.  
  
She wondered if it would have been better to never experience such sensations, never know the touch of a man, the bodily pleasure of the union of male and female, the inner joy of anticipation, and the heartbreak that came afterwards.  
  
She wondered if she should tell her friends.  
  
She wondered if she could tell her mother.  
  
Suddenly, clouds gathered in the sky, and became filled with golden light. A voice thundered, everywhere and nowhere at once.  
  
"DIANA. PRINCESS OF THE AMAZONS. MOST BEAUTIFUL OF ALL EARTHLY WOMEN. COME! THY HIGHEST MASTER SUMMONS YOU."  
  
It was the voice of Zeus, Lord of Olympus, King and Father of the Gods.  
  
  
  
**********************************************  
  
  
From the terrace of the royal palace, Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons, saw the sudden light, heard the echoing voice, and blanched.  
  
  
**********************************************  
  
  
  
"THOU HAST EARNED THE GRATITUDE OF OLYMPUS, COMELY CHILD."  
  
The presence of the Olympian was dazzling in its sheer majesty and splendor, with golden light radiating in all directions from his taller-than-human figure. Zeus's robe was white, like his hair and beard, the white of fire at its hottest, the white of lightning.  
  
Yet Diana found it less impressive than she might have a year ago. In her mind, she compared this display of godly power with the simple modesty of Kal-El, who embraced his adopted humanity, and with the dour, controlled puissance of Darkseid, whose power was even more fearsome all for not being openly flaunted. Somehow, though it felt like heresy, Zeus and his extravagance suffered in comparison.  
  
"My Lord-?"  
  
"THY LORD ZEUS GRANTS THEE THE BOON OF HIS ATTENTION. COME CHILD, AND WORSHIP ME!"  
  
  
**********************************************  
  
  
Driving her horse mercilessly, Hippolyta raced towards the Competition Fields.  
  
  
**********************************************  
  
  
"WORSHIP THY LORD!"  
  
The robes vanished and Zeus stood unclothed before her.  
  
Diana let one eyebrow rise slightly. Again, comparison was not flattering for the Olympian.  
  
  
**********************************************  
  
  
Hippolyta's stomach clenched at the sight. Her horse panicked and threw her.  
  
Cursing in gutter Themysciran, the Amazon Queen stood. Her curses then turned to desperate pleas of succor from the patron goddesses of the Amazons, as she charged towards her daughter and the Lord of Olympus.  
  
  
  
**********************************************  
  
  
  
"BLESSED ARE THEE AMONG ALL AMAZONS!"  
  
"You mean I-?"  
  
"THY COURAGE AND BEAUTY DOTH EARN THEE THE GREATEST HONOR OF ALL!"  
  
She looked away, embarrassed. Greatest? It did not look like that big an honor, she dared to think.  
  
"REJOICE NOW IN THE BOON BESTOWED UPON THEE!"  
  
"My Lord Zeus, I am not sure I deserve-"  
  
"THY MODESTY IS MISPLACED. THOU ART MORE THAN FITTING FOR A GOD'S ATTENTION, LOVELY CHILD!"  
  
"I am-?"  
  
"THOU CAN START ENJOYING MY GENEROSITY!"  
  
"But..."  
  
Zeus frowned. "BUT?"  
  
Diana looked down, baffled and unsettled. She had read about situations like this, supposedly fairly typical back in the ancient times, when the gods frequently claimed lovers among mortals, most often disguising themselves as beasts first. Yet she had never expected it to ever happen to her. Though she should probably feel flattered, it was now not just embarrassing, but also, somehow disappointing. It felt devoid of the gravity she had imagined during her readings. It felt prosaic.  
  
"Are you not supposed to be... ah, in some other... semblance?"  
  
"UH?"  
  
She blushed deeply. "I mean, was not that the... uh, traditional way?"  
  
"Traditional way?"  
  
"In the form of a beast, or-?"  
  
"THOU WOULDST RATHER ZEUS RESEMBLED AN ANIMAL?"  
  
Her ears were hot with embarrassment. "Well, like with Europa, or Leda-"  
  
"LEDA? THOU WOULDST ZEUS WAS IN SWAM SHAPE? REALLY?" Zeus was actually surprised. He had forgotten how kinky the mortals could be.  
  
"Uh, not really. It is just that..." She realized she was struggling for any way out. "My Lord, this is just so sudden!"  
  
"A BULL, THEN?"  
  
"No, no!" Diana waved her hands in confusion, though a part of her wondered if it would not be an improvement. "I just do not... I cannot accept something like this-"  
  
"THOU NEEDS NOT ACCEPT IT."  
  
"What?"  
  
"LORD ZEUS!" Hippolyta's voice rang out loud and clear, without any hint of fear, as she joined her daughter, to address the supreme deity of the pantheon her people worshipped. "SPARE MY DAUGHTER!"  
  
"Mother?"  
  
Zeus frowned ominously. "WHAT?"  
  
Diana's voice rose as well, turning back to see Zeus. "Excuse me, Lord Zeus, what did you mean by saying that I do not need to accept it?"  
  
"SPARE MY DAUGHTER, LORD ZEUS! SHE IS BUT A CHILD!"  
  
"SPARE HER? I WAS NOT GOING TO HARM HER!"  
  
"Did you mean I have no choice? Really?"  
  
Zeus turned back to Diana. "INSOLENT CHILD, IS THAT HOW THOU WOULD ADDRESS THY LORD?"  
  
Hippolyta's fists were clenched and her eyes shone with barely controlled emotions. "SPARE MY YOUNG DAUGHTER! DEAL WITH ME INSTEAD!"  
  
"THEE?" Zeus frowned. The Amazon Queen was a comely woman, but not quite like her flawless young daughter. "WELL, MAYBE LATER..."  
  
"Mother, please. I can handle this."  
  
"DIANA HAS SERVED OLYMPUS BRAVELY! SHE DESERVES BETTER!"  
  
"BETTER? BETTER?" Lighting suddenly coursed the skies. "THERE IS NO BETTER!"  
  
"I meant-"  
  
"THY LORD'S ATTENTION IS A BLESSING! SHE SHOULD BE HONORED-!"  
  
Hippolyta's reply was full of furious bitterness, the shadows of past betrayal souring her soul. "Like your son Herakles HONORED ME?"  
  
"THOU WOULDST DARE-?"  
  
Diana stepped forward, standing before her mother, and bowing her head formally to speak. "My Lord Zeus, let me express my deepest gratitude for your great generosity, but I must respectfully decline accepting such offer."  
  
"WHAT?" The god's voice became one with the thunder. "THOU... DECLINE?"  
  
"My Lord, yes."  
  
"DECLINE?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
  
  
THIRD PROLOGUE: THE GESTURE  
  
  
"ARE YOU MAD?"  
  
"SILENCE, WIFE!"  
  
"HOW-HOW DARE YOU?"  
  
"I RULE OLYMPUS, HERA! DO NOT FORGET THAT!"  
  
"YOU PATHETIC DIRTY OLD MAN! YOU STILL RULE HERE ONLY THANKS TO THIS AMAZON'S EFFORTS!"  
  
Before the assembled Olympians, Diana of Themyscira was held in stasis inside the nimbus of shifting energies that had brought her to Olympus. Gathered in gravity-defying positions, half a dozen goddesses surrounded the Amazon, shielding her from the wrath of Zeus.  
  
"SILENCE, I SAID!"  
  
"WITHOUT HER, THE MADNESS OF ARES WOULD HAVE DOOMED US ALL!"  
  
"Please, don't be so dramatic," the God of War said with a faint smile, in a nearby terrace. "It was just a small... experiment."  
  
"AND THE DARK GOD OF APOKOLIPS WOULD HAVE RAVAGED OLYMPUS! SHE SAVED OUR HOME!"  
  
Lightning flashed all around Zeus. "DOES THAT GIVE HER THE RIGHT TO SPIT ON ME?"  
  
"WHAT, JUST BECAUSE SHE WOULD NOT BE YOUR WHORE?"  
  
"STOP WITH YOUR JEALOUSY!"  
  
"MY JEALOUSY? WHAT ABOUT YOUR IDIOCY?"  
  
"Father." Athena, goddess of wisdom, strode forward, dressed in robes and armor, or maybe the brisk suit of a modern Earthly executive. "Please reconsider."  
  
"RECONSIDER WHAT? TO ALLOW THEM TO INSULT ME? ALLOW HER TO-?"  
  
"Who began the insults?" Artemis, goddess of the hunt, laughed bitterly. "You thought Themyscira could become your brothel!"  
  
"IT WAS AN HONOR I-!"  
  
"Honor? What a crock of shit!"  
  
"Father, please." Solemnly, Athena gestured towards the other goddesses. "You know the Amazons are under our protection. They have always been."  
  
"WOULD YOU TOO DEFY ME?"  
  
"Anger may not be the best strategy. The Amazons have not only served us through Diana's recent efforts. Their continued worship has been our strongest remaining link to the mortal plane. Would you forfeit that?"  
  
"WHAT USE IS THEIR WORSHIP IF THEY WILL NOT SERVE ME AS I DEMAND?"  
  
"Serve? As your concubines?" Artemis spat on the floor. "They may be better off dead."  
  
Zeus stood up from his throne. "FINE BY ME!"  
  
Hera clenched her fists. "I WILL NOT ALLOW IT!"  
  
"HADES TAKE YOU ALL! THEY MUST PAY FOR THIS INSULT!"  
  
"Oh, Lord Zeus," fleet-footed Hermes began, removing his metal helmet and bowing elaborately. "Is one girl, gloriously beautiful as she may be, worth all this contention?"  
  
"SHE SPURNED ME!"  
  
"Your glorious proposal probably just overwhelmed the poor child. She was likely not ready for such an honor."  
  
"STOP KISSING MY ASS!"  
  
"They are just human. We must be lenient with them."  
  
"LENIENT, MY ASS!"  
  
Athena moved daringly before the enraged god, and her voice was soft but sharp as unsheathed steel.  
  
"Surely the self-esteem of all-powerful Zeus is not so fragile as to be so wounded by a child's mistake?"  
  
"IT IS NOT THAT! IT IS... THE GESTURE! IT-!"  
  
"Then should your response not be also a gesture?"  
  
"A GESTURE? HER DEATH SHOULD BE GESTURE ENOUGH!"  
  
"No. A lesson. One she may benefit from."  
  
"A lesson?" Zeus leaned back in his throne, frowning. "Maybe... Yes, something to teach her, and them, their rightful place."  
  
Artemis gritted her teeth. "Their rightful place?"  
  
Unexpectedly, Ares strode forward. "Perhaps the Amazons are worth more than being just... that kind of servant."  
  
Artemis laughed. "Fuck. FUCK! The end must be near! Ares agrees with us!"  
  
"A test," Ares continued. "Let our gesture be a test. Of the Princess Diana, and of all her people. If these Amazons believe they can determine their own destiny, let them prove it."  
  
"Prove it?" Artemis faced the God of War, hunter's eyes full of indignation. "She made YOU change your mind, remember? And saved Olympus from the invasion of the Dark God of Apokolips! What further proof do you want?"  
  
"The weapon must be honed, Sister, lest it turn dull. You should know that."  
  
"Honed to the breaking point?"  
  
"It could be fun," a sultry voice added.  
  
All eyes but those of Ares turned towards Aphrodite as she approached Zeus. Softly, she whispered in his ear, while the Ruler of Olympus stared at her deep cleavage, only partially concealed by her flowing brunette tresses, until she withdrew, smiling, secretive, as love often is. And Zeus laughed.  
  
"I like that. I LIKE THAT!"  
  
  
FOURTH PROLOGUE: THE CHALLENGE OF THE GODS  
  
  
"DIANA OF THEMYSCIRA!"  
  
Down on one knee, surrounded by dense, opaque mists revealing only the towering outlines of the Olympian Pantheon, still Diana, Princess of the Amazons, kept her head unbowed, as Zeus rendered judgement upon her.  
  
"THOU HAST DARED TO CHALLENGE THE WILL OF OLYMPUS!"  
  
She bit her lip, fighting the impulse to speak up.  
  
"ONLY THY PAST SERVICES SAVED THY LIFE!"  
  
"Gratitude's a bitch," Hermes muttered, and Diana smiled, recognizing his voice.  
  
"BUT NOW, THE GODS WILL CHALLENGE THEE IN RETURN!"  
  
Diana nodded. She knew she would have to make amends of some kind.  
  
"AND THE LIVES OF ALL THY PEOPLE WILL DEPEND ON THY FULFILLING THE CHALLENGE!"  
  
"The lives-?" Diana stood, her fists clenched. "Why would-?"  
  
Zeus pointed a finger at her. "HEAR THY CHALLENGE, AMAZON. LIKE HERAKLES, MY SON, ONCE DID, TWELVE MIGHTY LABOURS MUST BE PERFORMED, LABOURS THAT SHALL TASK THY POWER AND SKILL, TO PROVE THEE AND ALL THY PEOPLE WORTHY!"  
  
"Twelve labours?"  
  
Ares stepped forward, bearing in his armored hand a circular amulet, one hand-span-wide, inscribed deeply with ancient designs. "Recognize this, Amazon?"  
  
Diana's eyebrows arched up. "Harmonia's Talisman!" It was the mystical object that had guided her to Patriarch's World, in order to stop Ares' plan of initiating a final war that would unleash man's atomic weapons.  
  
Ares smiled under his dark helm, and the Talisman suddenly shattered into fragments, all which sped away from each other, at right angles to every dimension known to man, racing far beyond sight and reality, but for a single piece that remained in the palm of the god's gauntlet.  
  
"You must now rejoin the trinket, my dear." Causally, he tossed that single remnant at the Amazon, who caught it.  
  
Zeus spread his arms, calling for attention. "AMAZON! THOU MUST PASS THROUGH DOOM'S DOORWAY INTO THE NETHERWORLDS OF TARTARUS, TO SEARCH AMONG ITS SHADOW REALMS FOR THE TWELVE SCATTERED PIECES OF THE SHATTERED TALISMAN! ONLY ONCE IT IS WHOLE AGAIN WILL THY CHALLENGE BE OVER, AND THEE AND THY KIND BE DEEMED WORTHY! BUT EACH FRAGMENT SHALL BE WELL GUARDED, AND THOU MUST FACE EACH GUARDIAN IN CONTEST OF MIND AND BODY, UNTIL ANOINTED BY SUCCESS!"  
  
"Anointed-?"  
  
"OLYMPUS HAS SPOKEN!"  
  
  
TO BE CONTINUED


	2. FIRST LABOUR: THE LEONINE RIDDLE

FIRST LABOUR: THE LEONINE RIDDLE

  
  
Diana stood ready.  
  
The massive, heavily-reinforced door sealed a cavernous opening at the barren, rocky mountain face. Doom's Doorway led not just into the darkness under the Earth, but also into the realms of ancient mortal fears and primal imagination.  
  
It led into Tartarus.  
  
Righteous outrage, grim frustration and deep concern fought for predominance in the gathered Amazon Nation, formally assembled to honor their Princess and Champion. But nowhere was the struggle as painful as in the soul of Queen Hippolyta, as she saw her only daughter, the only daughter of all Themyscira, stoically preparing to enter the almost-certain death of the fearsome gateway.  
  
"You don't have to do this." Hippolyta's voice was hoarse, and her eyes red, underscored by the darkness of vigil.  
  
Diana tossed her hair to a side, and swung the bundle of supplies over a shoulder, next to the battle-axe on her back. "Yes. I do, mother. I do. And I will."  
  
"Diana..."  
  
"Wish me strength, Mother. And wisdom."  
  
"All those you already have in plenty."  
  
Diana smiled with gratitude, and walked into darkness.  
  
  
  
**********************************************  
  
  
  
"It has begun." Athena's voice was serene, but with an underlying edge of anger, the cold anger of rational thought faced against foolishness.  
  
The Mists of Gaea rose from the glowing brazier; shifting vapors framed the image of the Amazon Princess as she ventured through the damp depths of the Earth. Her sable-black hair blended with the encroaching darkness; her face and armored figure were faintly lighted only by the glow of the magic lasso.  
  
"Can't make out shit," Zeus grumbled. "Couldn't she light a torch or something?"  
  
"And risk depleting a possibly limited supply of air? The Amazon knows better."  
  
"Well, I want to see what happens, Me-damn it."  
  
"You just want to check her out as she walks," Hera spat. "Don't bullshit us."  
  
Zeus played deaf, the usual tactic to deal with an annoying partner, and squinted at the gloomy image. There should be a way to fast-forward to the good bits.  
  
  
  
**********************************************  
  
  
  
Diana held the lasso loosely in her extended right hand, its golden luminescence barely making out the path before her. Climbing over a craggy mound, she steadied her advance on the tunnel's side, and her touch found long, deep gouges in the coarse rock wall, raked by claws unlike any born of natural earth.  
  
She wondered what kind of creature had left such marks. Many were the nameless horrors imprisoned beyond Doom's Doorway; preventing their escape had been the penance and bane of the Amazons for centuries, a penance late-born Diana had not shared, shielded by her mother, by the privilege of royal authority, a privilege that had been a burden for the young Diana, and reason for many a conflict between mother and daughter. Perhaps now, by willingly walking into the storeroom of horrors that connected to the netherworlds of Tartarus itself, was Diana finally paying her dues.  
  
Yet no matter what further dangers Diana faced, she carried now an added burden. Her quest sought to placate the anger of Zeus, the Lord of Olympus himself, an anger that she had brought down on her sisters. No matter what feats she may accomplish, she was responsible for endangering her people at all. Who knew what fearsome revenge could the Olympian rain upon Themyscira in his wrath? All because of her. Because of her denial. Because she had turned down the Olympian's favors.  
  
The softly echoing sounds of her footsteps were lost as she stepped into a larger space, its extent lost in ink-like blackness. There were a series of rough, chalk-white slabs spiralling down into the dark, and she carefully followed the path, descending, while guilt and anger fought inside her.  
  
She had done what felt correct. She had followed her heart, and been honest to herself. Feeling no desire, no interest in accepting the god's offer, she had declined. But such choice had brought danger upon Themyscira. Had she the right to take such a stance? She wanted to think so. She wanted to believe that the fight for what was right started in the most basic choices of one's self. That the rights of the many were built upon the rights of the one.  
  
But while she sought solace in ethical principles, doubts lingered. What she had denied Zeus, she had already given willingly, and under far more distasteful circumstances, to none other than Darkseid, the cruel Lord of Apokolips. How could she justify spurning the advances of the highest of her gods, the patrons of her people, after having agreed to carnal congress with a monstrous despot who had threatened both Earth and Olympus? Could she still consider herself virtuous?  
  
Perhaps it was the paternal role of Zeus amongst the Olympians, something she had taken for granted since childhood, which made her considering him sexually discomforting, even intrinsically wrong, asides the simple lack of the simple physical attraction which she had felt for Superman and Darkseid alike.  
  
Or maybe she had just chaffed at the Olympian's impositive attitude, at his evident disregard for her volition. Even Darkseid had respected her right to choose.  
  
But did any of these justify endangering the lives of her people?  
  
It was now her responsibility to save what she had imperilled. She could not afford to fail.  
  
Suddenly, the blackness about the Amazon Princess came alive, reshaped into a thousand limbs, all reaching for her, grasping feverishly with twitching fingers, hungry for flesh, hungry for life.  
  
  
**********************************************  
  
  
Zeus smiled. The good bits, at last.  
  
  
**********************************************  
  
  
She was smothered by a myriad hands, grasping, clenching, kneading, seeking to bind her, ravage her. Her strikes cleaved and parted the mass of limbs, yet it reformed around  
the gap without pause. It was like seeking to fight the sea.  
  
She grimaced, fighting for breath, squeezed and groped by countless grips, and knew that she had to change tactics.  
  
With a cry of defiance, Diana brought her war-axe down against the bony slab on which she stood, one of the many making up the eerie stairway. Axe and step shattered as did all of the floating stairway. With a scream of agony echoing through impossible dimensions, the Amazon's attacker fell into the void, the shifting multiple limbs carried down inexorably along its shattered backbone.  
  
  
**********************************************  
  
  
Diana floated in the dark, slowing her breathing, trying to discern orientation in the field of absolute blackness, past the limited glow of the lasso. After a moment of fleeting panic, she stopped trying to see. Only then did she feel the pull, the minute tug of the amulet's fragment. She took it from her belt, and confirmed her suspicion. The amulet sought to be whole. Its fragments called to each other, if only she would listen.  
  
With little other choice available, she flew, trusting the subtle summons. An indeterminate stretch of time later, she lighted upon a rocky shelf faintly outlined by a distant reddish glow. The weak light came from a shaft high above in the cavern's roof, dancing and flickering like distant fire, that began to define the surrounding landscape of twisting and overlapping rocky formations, resembling the dense, craggy roots of a monstrous tree.  
  
"Ah, so you are the one who slew Cottus." The deep, musical voice surprised her. "Well done. Disgusting creatures, those Hecantoncheires, like most cthonics. Can only improve the neighborhood."  
  
The dialect was strange but understandable, with a musical rhythm, the voice like soft leather and rumbling water. She followed the resonant words, leaping to a wide basalt platform. Two other great rock plates rested at inclined angles, creating a shadowed alcove over her interlocutor.  
  
"I am Diana of Themyscira," she stated. "Please show yourself."  
  
"You are showing yourself a bit too much, Diana of Themyscira."  
  
She noticed her golden-plated bustier had been tugged partially down during the previous attack, exposing more of her tightly packed breasts than normal, so she pulled it back into place with mild annoyance. "Thank you. Please excuse if-"  
  
"You misunderstand. There was absolutely no complain on that regard. But the glowing line in your hand may be too gaudy a price to bandy about in a place like this."  
  
A screech suddenly sounded in the distance, and many more followed.  
  
"Oh, well. I did try to warn you."  
  
  
  
**********************************************  
  
  
  
There was a multitude of them, black furry bodies masking their numbers in the gloom of the cavernous space as they came at her, all grasping hands and cacophonous yells. Their sizes ranged from that of a small man to barely a feet tall, their faces were canine featured and their ears pointed. The collective stench was almost overpowering.  
  
Diana flew up, to avoid the assault of the swarming goblin-like creatures. But flight was no escape, as they had crawled, insect-like, onto the ceiling of the cavern, and dropped in thick numbers at her from above, so she was dragged down by the sheer mass of bodies. It was like being in the grasp of Cottus again, but without a single consciousness to oppose. Many groped and scratched at her limbs and clothes, but their main target seemed the glowing lasso. She seized two of the creatures and spun them about her as clubs, throwing away her attackers by the dozens, but more and more came, and she feared unleashing her full strength, which could easily kill the individuals closest to her. How could she fight such numbers without committing wholesale slaughter?  
  
Suddenly, a thunderous blast of sound filled the enclosed space, a fearsome trumpet-like roar that made Diana wince and cover her ears. She sensed a large creature fly about her, huge wings displacing air noticeably, scattering Diana's attackers with its presence and overpowering voice.  
  
As quickly as they had appeared, the repellent creatures vanished, and Diana landed back before the rocky alcove, in time to see the outline of the imposing winged creature as it settled down again in its refuge.  
  
"Thank you," she said, wincing at the ache in her ears. "Were they... Kallikantzaroi?"  
  
"Yes," the powerful voice replied in a low grumble. "They saw in futility at the roots of the World Tree, here in the darkness underground. But they are always greedy for gifts of beauty and joy. Both you and your lasso qualified. Yet they also fear my wrath, as well they should."  
  
She moved closer. The musical accent seemed middle eastern in origin. "May I come closer?"  
  
"You may, comely lass. You are looking for something, and I can give it to you."  
  
Diana walked forward. "You know where I can find the amulet fragment?"  
  
In the reddish glow she could see the man-like face nod, framed in a thick mane of flowing hair that also enveloped the wide, powerful shoulders bearing thickly muscled human arms, behind which lay a lion-like body, shadowed by the huge folded wings on its back.  
  
A sphinx? The accent did not seem Aegyptian, but her ears were still ringing from the powerful roar. "May you give it to me?"  
  
"Only if you reply properly to my own inquiry."  
  
Sphinx were notorious for asking riddles, and proved deadly towards those who failed to solve them. This had to be the guardian Zeus had referenced.  
  
"Ask me, then, if you would."  
  
The creature nodded again, with a low growl resembling the beginning of laughter, if rock slides could laugh.  
  
"What is the charm  
That can vanquish sleep  
That brings no harm  
Yet may make hearts weep?  
  
What is the gift  
That may seal a soul's vow  
That may heaviness lift  
And in committed heat grow?  
  
Reply be told  
With skill and poise  
With act bold  
But not of voice."  
  
Diana frowned. The riddle was far too simple. Too obvious. Was there misdirection involved?  
  
No voice. Was that was the only catch? To reply without speaking? Still, Diana balked for an instant at what it implied.  
  
The creature had been helpful. Its manners were polite, and its voice gentle and soothing. Maybe too soothing.  
  
Cautiously, Diana strode forward, until she stood at arm's length before the creature. The mane-framed head rose from the thick arms folded in crouching position, and her face was level with it. Golden slanted eyes under bushy red brows regarded her with what appeared like amused curiosity. Uneasy, but bound by her stated agreement to play the riddle, Diana leaned forward and her lips approached the creature's cheek. A deep rumble echoed in its mighty throat, like contemptuous laughter, and she hesitated. Not daring to risk her answer being deemed incorrect on a technicality, she pursed her lips and touched them instead to the creature's mouth, for a light, quick kiss.  
  
She quickly drew back, and the golden eyes followed her with a piercing stare. "You think such a half-hearted reply will earn you the prize? I question your commitment."  
  
Diana frowned again. "You are taking advantage."  
  
It chuckled with deep resonances. "Of course."  
  
Diana breathed in deeply, and lunged forward, grabbing the thick mane of red hair with both hands and pulling the head towards her, towards her open mouth. If a strong, clear answer was wanted, she would give it. Her lips worked urgently, impatiently, and when the creature's long tongue darted forward, she met it with her own. She tightened her grip on the thick, silken hair of its mane as their tongues wrestled, and a powerful, musky taste filled her mouth. Sharp-clawed fingers lightly brushed against her right leg, sliding along the back of her thigh. When the oversized hand daringly encompassed her left buttock, she bit roughly on the creature's lower lip and pushed herself away.  
  
"THAT was another question altogether," she said. "And its answer is 'no'."  
  
The golden stare met hers. "Your lips and tongue seemed to be making other inquiries and demands."  
  
"I just gave the riddle's answer. Was I not clear and loud enough?"  
  
"You are a fierce kisser, amazon. Are you just as energetic in-?"  
  
"You will hardly find out."  
  
The creature extended its right hand, and a small piece of broken ceramic glowed in its palm.  
  
"You solved the riddle. The prize is yours to take."  
  
Casually, it threw the amulet piece off to a side, and Diana's eyes automatically followed it.  
  
"And so is mine."  
  
Diana had been on guard, prepared for violence, yet it almost came too fast. Launched by powerful hind-legs, the creature pounced in a fluid motion, huge hands seizing hers. But instead of struggling she let the rush drive her back, to roll backwards with the momentum, and reversed the grips as she thrust her feet forwards and up. Thrown in a tight arch, the creature's body dislodged the massive rocks that formed the alcove, which crashed nosily around them as it was slammed to the rocky surface behind. She complete the backward roll to straddle her attacker, still controlling one massive arm, ready to deliver a flurry of punches.  
  
Suddenly pain flared in her back, and she instantly rolled forward and away. Jumping to her feet she scanned the gloomy environs for a possible second enemy who may have attacked from a distance. Arrow? Dart? Whatever had struck her left a sharp burning in its wake, but she was not bleeding. She had not been run through, nor punctured deep enough to harm internal organs. But how had she failed to sense-?  
  
Laughter resonated all around like a blaring trumpet, and she saw the unfolding of the vast, feathers-less wings made of red leathery skin, above which a long appendage of  
hard-shelled segments coiled tall and ominous, its bulbous end hooking into a pointed barb.  
  
Scorpion tail. Dragon-like wings. It was not a sphinx.  
  
The accent was Persian, she realized at last, and recalled the strange sensation of multiple rows of teeth inside the wide mouth as she had kissed it.  
  
"Manticore," she muttered, cursing herself for a fool, just before her limbs grew completely limp and she collapsed to the ground.  
  
Laughter surrounded her.  
  
  
**********************************************  
  
  
She could not move.  
  
She was awake, and fully aware of the manticore looming over her, of the cruel eyes and mocking smile, of the hot breath on her face, but she could not move. Paralysed by the creature's venomous sting, she lay face up on the rocky shelf, like a puppet with cut strings. Her chest rose and fell with her breathing, but her body was a machine running on automatic functions, deaf to the orders of her desperate consciousness, a living, yet detached shell housing her, an impassive, indifferent prison for her self.  
  
"The trinket is right there for you to take, amazon. If you could, of course."  
  
Her eyes could only look up, into the manticore's golden stare.  
  
"You are beautiful indeed." Slanted eyes moved down to her bosom. "Far more than what I was told."  
  
Claws tore through her bustier, rending the metal-reinforced fabric with ease, and the freed breasts spread gently to each side of her torso.  
  
"Impressive. Teats worthy of a goddess."  
  
The scorpion tail arched forward, and its stinger approached her face. The hard-shelled bulb brushed against her cheek before moving down to the valley between her breasts, where the stinger's hooked barb made the barest of contact with her skin, its hard point following the lines of her clavicle and shoulder before tracing over the surface of one breast a curved path that spiralled down in decreasing concentric fashion, settling into a circling of the edge of the raised aureole crowned by a rosy nipple.  
  
"Could all amazons of your tribe be so generously endowed?"  
  
The stinger repeated the same motions on the opposite breast, culminating in the slow circling of her other aureole.  
  
"No, no. Such a perfect body must be one of a kind."  
  
The stinger drifted down, slowly moving over her midsection, past her loins, and along the bared length of a leg, stopping at the top of the red and white boot. Changing to the same place at her other leg, it brushed along its inner surface, up to the union of thighs and body. The sharp tip of the hooked barb scratched the star-patterned fabric over her mound, before pressing in and puncturing the cloth, grazing the softness underneath. It then drew upwards slowly but firmly from her mound up, tearing through cloth and metal, until the stinger could casually flick to each the split remains of her attire, exposing her torso completely. Moving down from the swell of her breasts, the stinger retraced its passage over her body, but this time the barb's sharp tip grazed the silken skin deliberately, leaving a faint scratched line to attest to its passage over the tautness of her abdomen, down to the soft dark curls on her mound. It skipped to run in long, languid strokes over her legs, leaving barely visible trails over the muscular contours of the thighs and upper calves.  
  
"Will almost be a shame to devour such luscious flesh."  
  
The manticore's mouth spread in an impossible wide grin, wicked rows of teeth gleaming in the reddish glow coming from above.  
  
"Almost."  
  
The stinger returned to her chest, and almost playfully swiped sideways at one breast, making its firm flesh jostle.  
  
"But I will enjoy tasting it every way, thoroughly."  
  
The creature pounced down, maw wide open, and the triple row of teeth seized her bosom's delicate flesh, nibbling on the slightly hardened nipples and the soft tissue surrounding it.  
  
  
**********************************************  
  
  
Diana felt everything, every motion of the ominous stinger on her body, the scratching of its sharp point, on her skin, the rough biting and tugging on her nipples and breasts by the triple rows of teeth. She had not been deprived of sensation, just of conscious motion, of the ability to react as she should, to defend herself.  
  
Making it worse, detached from judgement, from volition, her body instinctively reacted to the touching, the scratching, the biting, the licking. Her skin grew goosebumps when the stinger ran along her inner thighs and scraped lightly up to her groin. Her nipples hardened, becoming erect in the creature's mouth.  
  
She tried to scream in anger and frustration but no sound came except from that her breathing.  
  
  
**********************************************  
  
  
Clenched on a nipple, the teeth tugged the whole breast up before releasing it, making her whole bosom bounce and tremble.  
  
The manticore chuckled at the hardness of her saliva-covered nipples. "You are enjoying it, I see."  
  
Diana's curses could not reach her lips.  
  
"You will enjoy this even more." Moving down, the creature spread her legs wide apart. "Humans called me The Man-Eater, but I much prefer women. Tasty women like you."  
  
The leering mouth dove hungrily at her exposed crotch.  
  
  
**********************************************  
  
  
She hated it. Hated the helplessness, the impotence. Hated the abusive manhandling of her body by such a despicable beast. Hated every lick and bite, every probe and tug. Hated every sensation they drew from her unknowing flesh. Hated the growing responses of her body, reacting mindlessly to plain physical stimuli. Hated the growing  
instinctive animal pleasure that arose from the continuous, unwanted caresses.  
  
How could this horrible beast inflame her senses so much?  
  
Pain would have been better. She could have dealt with pain. But pleasure at the hands and mouth of this awful monster was worse than torture.  
  
And he was far from finished.  
  
  
**********************************************  
  
  
"Your taste is unique. So sweet, and tangy, and rich. I could lap your juices endlessly."  
  
The large tongue noisily slapped against bared fangs and palate.  
  
"But there is so much more to enjoy. So much."  
  
A thick clawed finger pressed against her sex, forcing its entry past her sodden folds, but just barely.  
  
"So tight! How can you be so tight? You are drenched wet already!"  
  
The finger pushed forward more forcefully, but barely gained a fraction of an inch.  
  
"You cannot be resisting. You should be paralysed for hours. Can you be this tight all the time?"  
  
The manticore drew back and grabbed one breast with an oversized hand, squeezing and kneading the firm, yet yielding flesh.  
  
"Perhaps your body needs more... convincing."  
  
The stinger brushed against her pubic hair, its hard chitinous shell moving to press against the underside of her mound. The pointed barb shifted its hooked length along her outer labia, moving back and forth, parting the folds gently, its sharp point grazing just barely the sensitive flesh. It then shifted to brush along her perineum, the tender divide between vulva and anus, and the hard tip traced with near infinitesimal pressure the puckered contour of her anal entrance. The barb drew back to part again her labia, its hard curved length rubbing insistently on the moist tissue of her folds, until it brushed against the growing presence of the tender nub nestled within. It began to target the swelling clitoris, grazing its sensitive bulge repeatedly, drawing it forth from its hooded abode.  
  
  
**********************************************  
  
  
She fought it, resisting with all will, forcing her mind to go elsewhere, to ignore the rising excitement, the escalating sense of need, just as she fought the progressive humiliation, the growing dread of being used against her will by this hateful thing and the maddening frustration of being unable to stop it.  
  
She had to find a way to escape. Escape her ordeal. Escape the threat of rape and murder. Escape the betrayal of her own body.  
  
  
**********************************************  
  
  
"You appear to be very sensitive here. Good."  
  
The rigid barb nudged the swollen bud with quick pokes and flicks, and her spread thighs trembled noticeably with instinctive tension, wetness pooling abundantly between them.  
  
"Are you ready now?"  
  
The stinger's barb moved lower along the parted labia, its hard curve rubbing the tender flesh.  
  
"Should I test your tightness again? Like this?"  
  
The barb's sharp point touched the point of her vaginal entrance, applying almost infinitesimal pressure.  
  
"Should I enter you this way?"  
  
The barb shifted angle slightly and the pressure increased.  
  
"Maybe sting you... inside? That may... relax you further."  
  
  
**********************************************  
  
  
Horror and need filled her mind and body respectively, at opposite ends of the emotional spectrum.  
  
She could not help but be intensely conscious of the growing pressure at her most intimate spot, at the rising threat of penetration and inevitable injury.  
  
There was no way the sharp point would not tear her inside, yet her body quivered, feverish with anticipation,  
  
  
**********************************************  
  
  
"But that would be spoiling it."  
  
The pressure withdrew and the barb moved back to her clitoris, the hard point brushing against the swollen nub in a soft circular motion.  
  
"Better let you wait for the real thing. And I do not want you to get too loose. I want you to hurt, at first."  
  
  
**********************************************  
  
  
Momentary relief was turned into wildly escalating tension as waves of intense sensation radiated from her clitoris.  
  
And then it exploded into sudden, sharp, irresistible pain.  
  
  
**********************************************  
  
  
With a quick, deliberate motion, the stinger's point had stabbed cruelly at her erect clitoris, nearly piercing the over-sensitive nub.  
  
  
**********************************************  
  
  
It was almost too much. The escalating tension in her body suddenly vaulted towards a bursting point, the sudden localized pain be-getting pleasure impossible to ignore, impossible to escape, failing to crest that edge of no return by just the merest margin.  
  
Her teeth bit her lower lip to hold back a gasp, and the fingers of her right hand clawed against the rocky ground.  
  
  
  
**********************************************  
  
  
"You almost came. I could tell."  
  
The sharp barb had barely pricked the delicate bud for a fraction of a second, releasing no venom, but Diana's body had stiffened violently in response.  
  
"You like it when it hurts." The manticore laughed its loud, trumpeting blare. "You are probably desperate for it now."  
  
The stinger drew back and away, its curved barb shiny with dripping juices, and the manticore moved between the amazon's legs, spreading them farther apart to accommodate the massiveness of its body. Her hips were pulled off the ground, and a large, hot mass pressed against her sex.  
  
"It would be too cruel of me to tease you further."  
  
  
**********************************************  
  
  
She could not escape. She could not get away from what was happening. From what she was experiencing.  
  
And she should not.  
  
She was an amazon.  
  
She was not raised to run away, to hide from danger, from hardship.  
  
She was trained to face it. To endure and prevail. To match her opponent's strengths and use them against him.  
  
  
**********************************************  
  
  
It seemed like it had happened just yesterday.  
  
She had just turned twelve, a thin reed of a girl, tall for her age, yet willowy and delicate, frail in appearance compared to the athletic mature women all around her, compared to her mother, beautiful and impressive as always. She was the only one so small and weak and undeveloped in the island, the only child in paradise. Yet the promise of the future strength to come was already in her bright blue eyes.  
  
It had been a scary, solemn ceremony. She had prepared for it, but could not avoid feeling nervous when it came.  
  
There were no lengthy speeches. She was asked her name, before her assembled sisters and mother, and asked to state her willingness to assume her role, to take her responsability. As one of them.  
  
As an amazon.  
  
It was her rite of passage. It was her time.  
  
Diana replied without losing nerve. Her voice did not break as she had feared.  
  
Hippolyta, her mother, smiled.  
  
"These are the symbols of who we are, of what we are. They were our shame, but are now part of our strength. We use them for protection, and as reminders. They were forced upon us by our enemies, but we overcame, and triumphed. Now they remind us of what we experienced and endured, and what we have to protect. No matter what power is used against us, we will not be defeated. We will adapt and prevail. We will turn the tools of our enemies against them, turn them into our strengths. That is the Amazon Way."  
  
Gleaming bright under the sunshine at Themyscira, the newly forged bracelets were clasped to Diana's slender wrists. They fit loosely, but she would grow into them.  
  
As an amazon.  
  
  
**********************************************  
  
  
It hurt, but she welcomed the pain, relished it. Yet she knew that it was not enough.  
  
She had to accept both the pain and the pleasure that followed. She had to embrace the waves of sensation emerging from her loins and running through her body, focusing on how they made her muscles tense and tremble, on how they made her body move instinctively in response. How they made her move.  
  
  
  
**********************************************  
  
  
"DAMN! YOU ARE BETTER THAN ANYTHING I'VE EVER HAD! YOU ARE BETTER THAN A GODDESS!"  
  
  
**********************************************  
  
  
Pain and pleasure raced like molten lava through her body, and she took it all in, letting the power of her anger and disgust lift her awareness even higher, welcoming how the intense sensorial assault shocked her senses, how it awakened her most primal physical reactions, as her mind sought to focus on the source, the relentless piercing at her core where it all erupted from.  
  
  
**********************************************  
  
  
The manticore's growls and grunts rose noisily, wings flapping with wild abandon as the leonine hindquarters drove powerfully forward, again and again.  
  
  
**********************************************  
  
  
Her muscles clenched and relaxed in reflexive echo to each thrust, matching the rhythm of the creature's motions, building up to the imminent release.  
  
  
**********************************************  
  
  
Huge reptilian wings spread wide, and the manticore thrust harder and deeper than ever. The whole powerful leonine body and the long scorpion tail tensed, and the mighty voice trumpeted with a wild, thunderous roar.  
  
  
**********************************************  
  
  
The sudden last brutal thrust and consequent explosion of heat deep inside finally made the accumulated tension explode, and Diana's mind embraced her body's orgasm, welcoming how her muscles tensed and seized in climax, consciously focusing all her will, all her power into the intense orgasmic contractions, to clench and tighten with all her might, there, at the very core of her.  
  
  
**********************************************  
  
  
The manticore's roar of delight turned to shock and pain.  
  
The scorpion tail flailed violently and the wings flapped with sudden desperation, taking the creature to the air, yet it remained trapped, seized at the most vulnerable point by a vice-like grip that grew tighter and tighter with each mighty spasms, making the whole universe contract to a single point of agony.  
  
The manticore careened wildly through the enclosed airspace of the cavern, impacting against rocky walls again and again before falling back to crash face-up on the original ledge from where it had started. Despite the brutal impacts, Diana remained on top of him, loins against loins, legs wrapped tightly around the leonine lower body, her muscles still tensing rhythmically with the continued throes of her orgasm. Her fists were clenched, holding to the manticore's mane, and her eyes were focused, staring defiantly at her enemy's desperate face.  
  
With a scream of anguish and fury, the scorpion tail coiled and struck with vicious power, unleashing its deadly venom in a single stroke. But Diana was ready this time, and using every iota of her willpower, every bit of the barely regained control over her body, she let both hands go limp and twisted her upper body aside, away from the stinger's strike.  
  
The manticore screeched, brutally stabbed by its own stinger.  
  
Diana held on, still joined tightly at the loins, riding the creature's desperate convulsions as it shook and thrashed about wildly, blood and fiery venom flowing from where its chest was deeply pierced, bellowing in agony as its fluids of life spilled out in powerful bursts. Gradually, voice and body alike weakened more and more, until with a final shudder, the manticore finally grew still.  
  
It took a while for Diana to rise from the motionless body, her own tremors already faded as well. With still shaky arms and legs, she forced her hips up and away from the dead creature's loins, wincing as the still warm phallus flopped out and down, still monstrously large and rigid, despite the obvious signs of the crushing force that had irresistibly acted upon it.  
  
Still unsteady on her feet, Diana stared at the manticore's unseeing golden eyes. While her anger remained unabated, a part of her also mourned the death of any living being, no matter how justified. But the creature had brought its own death upon itself, in every sense, paying the highest price for its actions.  
  
Turning around, she looked for the amulet piece among the scattered debris, and soon held it in her hand, a glowing piece of ceramic, broken and small. How high its cost had been.  
  
For a moment she thought tears would come to her, tears of anger and shame and frustration at the horrible wrong that she had just experienced. But she did not cry. She had no reason to feel shame or guilt. She had suffered a terrible, unwanted abuse, but she had endured, and triumphed. She had prevailed.  
  
Now she knew what her mother and the other amazons had experienced at the hands of Herakles and his men, those centuries past. She had known before, abstractly, but had not really understood, not truly, not viscerally, not in her innermost self. Now she did. Now she really knew. She knew, and understood.  
  
She had learned, and grown stronger from it.  
  
As an amazon.  
  
  
  
**********************************************  
  
  
  
Clumsily, with shaking hands, Zeus stumbled back onto the couch from which he had fallen, to the surprise of many of the assembled Olympians.  
  
Hera glowered, suspicion growing to certainty in her eyes. "You were there, weren't you?"  
  
"I-I just grew dizzy!"  
  
"You dirty lecher! You were riding the manticore's mind!"  
  
"Nonsense! I just slipped-! Had too much to drink..."  
  
"You hid there, like a pathetic stowaway! Just to have a second-hand chance at the amazon! That's why you wanted to pick the first trial!"  
  
"I had too much to drink! That is what being married to you drives me to!"  
  
"And you got shocked shitless by the thing's death!" Hera laughed mirthlessly. "Serves you right! A pity you got out at all-!"  
  
"WHAT? YOU-?"  
  
"Let us not forget why we are here," Athena cut in. "What matters is that Diana faced the first challenge and won."  
  
"Won?" Zeus stood up, eyes blazing. "But the manticore beat her! Had her helpless!"  
  
"Momentarily. Diana never accepted defeat. Then she found a way to victory."  
  
Aphrodite's sensuous mouth widened in a smile. "A way through sex, too. Obviously, I approve."  
  
Lightning arched from Zeus' clenched fist. "That was cheating! The fight was already over!"  
  
Athena held her father's stare without flinching. "A fight is not over until one dies or surrenders. The manticore is now dead. Diana survived. Thus, she won."  
  
Areas nodded. "I must agree, the amazon won."  
  
Grumbling, Zeus strode off, thunder echoing in the distance.  
  
Artemis shook her head. "She did, but at what cost?"  
  
"That of an enemy's life, of course."  
  
"I meant to her! "  
  
Ares shrugged. "She had to be tested. We agreed."  
  
"Tested? By sending her blind into a trap? Setting her up for possible slaughter or abuse?"  
  
Athena stood up, lips pursed. "Perhaps there are things that Diana needed to learn."  
  
"Learn what? That rape sucks? That her gods suck? Big fucking surprise."  
  
Standing several paces away, Hermes sighed in agreement, his eyes downcast.  
  
Areas smiled, and casually reached for a bunch of grapes from a bowl. "She had to learn the lessons of war. And she did. She killed her foe, as a warrior should."  
  
Aphrodite took the grapes from his hand. "Actually, the manticore killed itself."  
  
He shrugged. "Whatever. She won through its death."  
  
"She won by embracing sex, instead of denying it."  
  
Artemis grimaced with disgust. "Sex that was forced upon her."  
  
Ares spread his hands. "Exactly. She hardly chose to go that road willingly."  
  
"But she chose to let herself enjoy it, and to use it to her advantage."  
  
Artemis shook her head in disbelief. "You think she enjoyed it? Being horribly abused by a murderous beast?"  
  
Aphrodite shrugged. "Oh, please. It wasn't that bad. At least the manticore was a good lay. It's almost a shame that-"  
  
"WHAT?"  
  
"Come on, she came, didn't she?"  
  
"She was unable to control her body's reactions-!"  
  
"Happens to me too when it's really good. Not that anyone here would know about that."  
  
Ares tapped the tips of each hand's fingers together. "Careful, Sister."  
  
Artemis strode forward, incensed. "You think that makes it all right-?"  
  
"It DID make it all right. Embracing her orgasm let her overcome the paralysis. Would you rather had her be eaten alive without that chance to get free?"  
  
"Diana just... did what she had to do."  
  
"Exactly. THAT was a good... learning experience."  
  
"Learning experience?"  
  
"Yes! It taught Diana the power that sex can give a woman."  
  
Artemis grimaced in disgust. "There is sex, and there is rape. I thought Love would know well the difference."  
  
"You would speak to ME about the nuances of love, you... Maiden of the Hunt?"  
  
Artemis reddened. "You dare-?"  
  
Athena raised a hand. "Please, let us not-"  
  
"Oh, you are no better, Athena Parthenos," Aphrodite scoffed. "You are both so smug in your self-deprivation! If you only-"  
  
"You forget yourselves." Athena's voice turned icy. "What matters is Diana's victory. We must focus on her now. And what comes next."  
  
Artemis and Aphrodite diverted their eyes, nodding. They knew well not to argue with Pallas Athena. She was not just the goddess of reason, she was also the goddess of strategy, of war as science, the cold complement to the violence of Ares. And Athena's clear grey eyes now looked at her brother and sister with just a hint of a suspicion.  
  
  
  
TO BE CONTINUED


	3. SECOND LABOUR: THE MAIDEN OFFERING

SECOND LABOUR: THE MAIDEN OFFERING

 

Green eyes sparkled like shifting moonlight over water. "It has been a while since we played such games with mankind."

Zeus smiled. "Too long, if you ask me."

"I'm not sure I approve. The amazons have long been faithful to us. My waters have kept their island secure for centuries of their worship."

"So did my skies, and how did this upstart girl show her appreciation?"

Artemis sighed. "We've been through this before."

"It is happening, Brother. The amazon travels thru Tartarus as we speak. Now is your rightful turn to choose a challenge for her. Right after me."

Something stirred in the depths of Poseidon's sunken eyes. "You wanted her to fail. Yet she survived your attempt to break her. Interesting."

"She... had a fair chance. And got lucky. But will you really pose a challenge, or go easy on her, Brother?"

Poseidon snorted in derision, echoing the vast cetaceans. "The sea is never easy. Woe on those who forget that. Brother."

The golden trident began to glow.

 

**********************************************

 

Diana stopped. The two amulet fragments in her grip were glowing brighter; light surrounded first her hand and then grew into a nimbus that enveloped her completely.

When the light withdrew, the Amazon Princess was somewhere else.

The gloom of the caverns deep below Themyscira was gone. She stood instead on a lichen-covered boulder overlooking a steep drop to the coastline, where dark waves bathed the sharp rocks under a clear blue sky.

She climbed down to the shore, and after careful examination of her surroundings, left the tattered remains of her clothing alongside her diminished bundle of supplies. Cautiously, she bathed in the icy waters, welcoming the cold on her skin, carrying her lasso on a shoulder and holding tight the two amulets pieces, secure in a pouch made from her damaged bustier.

When exiting the waters, she found that her armored clothes had been restored to pristine condition.

She muttered a brief thanks to the gods. She was being watched, of course, but how closely?

 

**********************************************

 

Following the wordless tug of the amulet along the rocky coastline, she came to a settlement nestled against the stone walls, with homes ranging from modest huts to fancier places with ornately carved facades. Various fishing boats of assorted sizes were tied at the low wharf below. Sails were furled, and nets hung, unattended. No one could be seen moving about the place. She called out, and no voice answered, but as she walked closer, soon there was the faint murmur of people's voices, just past the farthest rock outcropping.

Following the sound, she came to an wave-lapped flat surrounded by towering sheer rock faces that plummeted straight to the tumultuous waters, the only access to a wave-lapped rocky ledge provided by a narrow passage fractured into the rock. A crowd of several hundred gathered there, near large, lighted braziers, their voices overlapping in a cacophony of excitement and lamentation, underscored by the steady beating of two large drums of stretched sharkskin by brawny men. A thin old man began to address then with well practiced cadence, his words flowing between the drum beats. Behind him, two spear-bearing men in stiff leather armor flanked a young blond girl, whose slender arms were extended above her head, wrists bound by heavy metal manacles to thick, rust-stained metal rings firmly embedded into the rock. Her tanned skin, from neck to ankles, was covered with delicate swirling patterns of painted purple and blue, and between the peaks of her young breasts hung the many loops of an elaborate necklace of gaudy stones, matching the headdress gathering the long locks of golden hair.

 

**********************************************

 

"-And blessed be this most beautiful maiden whose devout behavior shall bring honor to her house, as it brings peace to our people-!"

"STOP."

The drums grew silent. All eyes turned to the newly arrived amazon princess in shock, and people cringed away as she strode forward resolutely.

Assorted guardsmen leveled shaky spears at the tall, sable-tressed beauty, while the priest proved his mettle by speaking. "What-Who are you? What are you doing here?"

The dialect resembled some Mycenean variations Diana had studied in her youth. "I am Diana of the Amazons of Themyscira. I am on a quest for the gods of Olympus." She spoke slowly, careful to make herself understood in her best approximation of their grammar and syntax. "What are doing to that girl?"

The crowd erupted in multiple cries and arguments, but the priest silenced them imperiously. "LIES! THERE IS NO OLYMPUS ANYMORE!"

"No Olympus?"

"THE OLD GODS ARE LONG GONE! NOW THERE IS ONLY THE KRAKEN!"

"-Kraken?"

"You do not fool us! We know of no Themyscira. No other place remains in the world where man may live but our nation. You must be an evil spirit sent to confound us! BEGONE FOUL APPARITION, OR WE SHALL DESTROY YOU FOR THE GLORY OF OUR LORD THE KRAKEN!"

"Are Kraken not creatures of the northern lands far from-?"

"SLAY THE DECEITFUL SPIRIT!"

 

**********************************************

 

The golden lasso tightened around the now unarmed guards, bundled back to back against each other.

"Now stay still. I don't want to hurt anyone." Diana strode forward, tossing aside the broken spears. People cowered in fear at her proximity, but to his credit, the priest stood his ground before the foreign woman who towered over all of them.

"YOUR EVIL POWERS DO NOT SCARE US! THE KRAKEN WILL PROTECT US!"

Diana stepped around him and approached the bound girl. "Do not be afraid." She spoke soothingly, grabbing the heavy chains and easily twisting the manacles open, freeing the captive's wrists. "Have they hurt you?"

"N-No." The girl's voice was almost inaudible against the noise of the sea. She was almost two heads shorter than Diana, and her pretty face still held the softness of recent childhood. In the many-colored neck-piece, a small piece of golden ceramic glowed softly, beckoning.

"Good. No one will. I will make sure of it."

"No... No-!"

"YOU WILL NOT-!"

Without looking away, Diana reached out and grabbed the priest's hand, forcing him to drop the sharp piece of rock, before pushing him away harmlessly.

"You need not fear these men, I can take you away from-"

"NO!"

With sudden desperate surge of strength, the girl pushed at Diana, driving her back in surprise.

"YOU GO AWAY!"

Diana frowned. "I just want to help you."

The girl lunged forward again, trying to beat on Diana's chest with her fists. "YOU WILL DOOM US! GO!"

"Doom you? Why would I-?"

She heard the noise of the churning waters before the people started screaming.

A long stalk of greenish flesh rose from the sea, the first of many.

The crowd panicked, running for the small exit pass-way, while the priest lifted his hands and began to mumble unintelligible invocations. The nude girl's face blanched and she feel to her knees, her voice and strength gone in sudden despair.

Dripping seawater and dark algae, the tentacle reached the rock walls and began to slide over the surfaces, rippling and flapping, with tentative searching motions, their ends tapering from the thickness of a man's wrists to massive trunk-like stalks. For an instant, they flailed in vain at the place where the girl had been bound, making the metal rings and chains rattle, before slowly returning to their exploratory motions, inching towards Diana and the young girl.

 

**********************************************

 

The thing had to be enormous, Diana realized, as she flew, tugging the tied mass of writhing tentacles. More and more of the thickening limbs came into view, struggling for release as she drew the creature far away from land, its body not yet surfacing above the waves. Diana hesitated at harming the kraken. It could be a mindless beast following its instincts, unaware of the foolishness of a superstitious people, knowing of the horrible ritual only the easily availability of food. Yet it had to be stopped, and taught not to return.

When they were far enough from the coast, she began to fly in a tight circle, twisting the tentacles against each other, like making a giant braid. Faster and faster it circled, creating a whirlpool on the sea's surface, which grew in width and violence more and more, until the shell-covered body of the creature finally broke the surface, rotating about the whirlpool's circumference like the weighted end of a gigantic rotating sling. With a final grunt, Diana threw the monster away, sending it skipping over the waves like an oversized stone.

That should teach it.

 

**********************************************

 

Diana flew back to the sandy inlet, where the girl was still crying, down on her knees.

"It's gone now," Diana said, landing softly. "You are safe."

"NO!" Her sobs grew louder. "YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND!"

"But-?"

"YOU HAVE RUINED EVERYTHING!"

 

**********************************************

 

Diana stood in a rocky outcropping, looking up at the clear night sky. Though familiar, the star patterns were incomplete, and inconstant. Large swathes of sky lacked their constellations for lengths of time, and whole galaxies faded and reappeared randomly, as if the universe were flickering in and out of synchronicity with this current part of the world. Frowning, she looked down at the village, the homes lighted by oil lamps.

They had thrown stones at her.

The priest had returned, leading a mob of fishermen, old and young, and their wives and children, conquering their fear of the powerful outsider through religious fervor. When she had tried to address them, to explain that they were delivered from the monstrous sea beast, they had thrown stones at her, cursing her, denouncing her for her crime, for her faithlessness, for her interference. She had dodged and blocked, and finally took to the air, unharmed, yet frustrated.

Perseus had rescued Andromeda from being similarly sacrificed, but what if the victim did not wish to be rescued? She could face the kraken, or any such monster. But how could she fight a people's faith in an undeserving god?

Bare feet met stone a dozen paces behind her.

"Do not be afraid." She spread her hands in a gesture of reassurance as she turned. In the faint starlight, he appeared to be in his early teens, and his eyes darted nervously up from Diana's feet only in brief, hesitant glances. "I am not your enemy," she added.

His voice faltered twice before he mustered enough courage. "Are you... Are you a goddess?"

She smiled faintly. "A goddess? No, I am just a woman."

"But you... you flew. Like a bird." He glanced up again for an instant. "And your... your face, your..."

"I wield gifts of power. That doesn't mean I'm not-"

"Are you here to... to fight our god-?"

"Not if I can-"

"Or to wed him?"

"What-?"

"We offer brides. Every year. We give our best, our most lovely maidens. But it's never enough. It's never... satisfied. So we try again. Again and again. But you..." He fell to his knees. "You must be a goddess. You have to be. Your beauty... and power, you..." A flickering light grew closer, and the young man became even more nervous, continuing in a hurry. "If you marry the Kraken, it will surely be satisfied! How not? You are a goddess! It is fitting! We then would... She could..."

"DO NOT BLASPHEME!"

Torch in hand, the old priest marched at them, the fire lighting the anger in his face. The young man dared not look up from the ground.

"HOW DARE YOU-! BE GONE! NOW!"

The young man jumped up and hurried away, not looking back.

The torch shock as the priest still trembled with fury. "The young... are weak."

Diana walked closer. "He said that your-"

The priest shook a hand in denial. "Why... Why are you here? To temp our youngest into heresy?"

"I only want to help."

"Help... who?"

"Help the girl. Help all of you."

"By attacking our god? Attacking our way of life?"

"The kraken is not a god."

"What kind of being are you to speak such heresy? Are you here to test our faith?"

"No, I just-"

"Our god is real, and powerful!" His gnarled hands quivered with anger. "We have known its wrath! How can we doubt it-?"

"It is real, and powerful, yes. But it's just a monster, a powerful, dangerous sea creature. Why would you worship such-?"

"Why do you worship yours? Are they not just other dangerous, powerful creatures? Aren't they all?"

Diana was taken aback for a moment. "It is not the same."

"Can any mortal judge the gods? Gods just ARE!"

"What kind of god would demand a human sacrifice? Ask for a child's life?"

The priest "A cruel, merciless god! What other kind is there? What other kind has there ever been-? Are the gods you worship any different?"

Diana could not bring herself to state a flat denial. "Not all gods are the same. The goddesses of Olympus-"

He laughed, loudly, mirthlessly. "The Olympians? Where were they when the world was broken?"

"Broken-?"

"The father of my father was but a boy, yet he remembered the sundering of the world! The lightning, and the fires, and the waves. A war, he said it was. The seas and skies clashed with the ground, and the world was broken. It grew small, and empty, and we had nowhere to go. Everything was gone, swallowed by the waves, but for the remains of our nation. Where were the Olympians then? When we were stranded here?"

"Merciful Hera, how-? Was it during the Gigantomachy?"

"The what?"

"The War of the Giants." She shuddered. The chthonic remnants of the old powers had risen one last time against Olympus, only to be vanquished. She had learned of it as an epic tale of victory, of the Olympians triumphing against the last of the old, dark order, but what had the fallout been among the common people? "That was ages ago."

"I don't know. We were just fishermen. So many died. Drowned. Burned. Those few of us who survived almost starved, at first. The world changed, shrunk. Only this land and the seas remained. The seas... and the kraken."

"A... larger world remains beyond this place. My world. Olympus still stands in it."

"It does? And what good does it do us?" He grimaced, bitterly. "Why were we banished? Which was our crime?"

"I don't... I don't know." This place was a fragment of the ancient world, lost in time as well as space. The gods had sent her here, so they had to know about these people, about their being cast out of reality, collateral damage in the wars of higher powers. "I am sorry. I..."

"We all are. But we manage. We survive. Rock not the vessel, my father taught me, lest we all fall and drown. My father was priest before me, like his was, and so on, back to The Sundering. Rules were set down, in Sacred Scrolls, rules to obey. Rules to survive." He looked at her imploringly. "Go, woman, if woman is what you are. Go back to where you came from. And leave us. Leave us to our rules."

Diana struggled for an answer. Could she take these people back to the real Earth, away from this place? Could they fit in a world that had changed so much? Would they want to? "I cannot. I have a quest to fulfill, and must move forward. I have been commanded to-"

The priest nodded. "We must all fulfill our duties." He extended his hand, and a small ceramic fragment glowed faintly in the open palm. "Your eyes were on this. It was taken from the beach, but did not glow like this until you came. Take it. Take it and go."

Diana stared, unsure. "I don't think I can just do that. I must earn it. And I don't-"

"Go, and you will earn our gratitude."

Hesitatingly, she took the offered amulet fragment; broken, like these people, like their world. In her hand, its glow faded, and it grew dark and cold. She shook her head, and handed it back. "It cannot be that easy."

"Our god will know that you remain here. It will stay away. And so will the fish. Our nets will be empty and so will our bellies. Will you doom us to starve?"

"I do not want that." There had to be a way. "Could I... make peace with... your god?"

"There is only one way to peace."

Diana's jaw tightened. "The sacrifice?"

"The Offering."

 

**********************************************

 

The young man tended his nets sullenly, despondently. His eyes were downcast; the clear sky and bright sun held no joy for him anymore. But she came for him from above.

He yelled in horror as he was taken, high into the sky, where no man could ever venture, the realm of the birds, and of the foreign goddess.

"You love her, don't you? The girl?"

Through the fear, he understood, and nodded.

"Tell me about these Sacred Scrolls," the goddess said. "Tell me everything."

 

**********************************************

 

The blond girl cried softly, trembling, huddled in the bed, uncaring about the fine bedsheets and the rich meal set near. It had taken all her courage just to walk straight the last time. How could she do it again? How could she be expected to do it twice? She cursed silently, at her people, who had chosen her, and at her god, who had not taken her, and most of all, at the foreign monster, the one who had interfered, prolonging her suffering, forcing her to live in fear for longer than any other Offering before her. What had she done to deserve such cruel punishment? Had she not kept herself pure, despite her longings, despite her love? It would be over the next morning, as it should have been two days past, but she would face yet another night of abject terror and regret.

Suddenly, the door opened, despite dawn still being distant, and a tall figure walked in.

The girl scrambled back, horrified. It was her. The foreign monster. Her torturer.

"Don't scream," a familiar voice whispered, and from behind the monster, her beloved appeared. She broke down in tears again at seeing him. She had said her goodbyes in her heart. How could she endure this further torture?

"You-You can't be here!"

"But he is," the monster in woman's guise said, and touched his arm. The blonde almost shrieked. How dare the cruel one touch him, when even that she had denied herself, once the choice had been known? Had they done more? Had her impossible, obscene body known more of his touch? More than she ever had, ever would? She fell down crying, desolate, furious at the injustice of the world.

Then she was in his arms, his hands running thru her hair, his voice a soothing music to her ears.

"No. No. I can't. We can't. You know! Just like I do! The Offering must have never known any man born of Earth!"

Then she felt the other's touch as well, gentle and knowing.

"Yes. The Offering."

 

**********************************************

 

With slow, tender touches, Diana encouraged them, guided them.

Her mouth met the young girl's, teaching her the many ways to kiss, to use her lips and tongue. Then she showed him where and how to caress, how to best dispel the girl's fear and reluctance, yet always leaving his touch for the blonde alone. When after a long build-up, the two lovers ultimately joined, Diana held the girl's hand and nuzzled at her ear, whispering caring words of assurance, welcoming her to womanhood.

 

**********************************************

 

The sun spread its warmth over the village as the crowd moved towards the Sacred Abode of the Offering, the weary priest leading the way. Suddenly, he staggered back, his strength faltering, as he saw the guards, still tied and unconscious. The door to the ceremonial hut opened and to his horror, the Offering walked out, not alone. Her hair was disheveled, as was his, and their skins were red, flushed with more just the shame of their crime.

"-What have you done-? WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?"

The crowd erupted in cries and curses. Spears were raised towards the two young lovers.

The young man moved to stand before the girl. "Father, please, we..."

The priest ignored his son's words, shaken by outrage and despair. "YOU HAVE SINNED! YOU HAVE-!"

"They have loved each other. As they longed to." Diana strode out. "True love is never a sin."

The crowd gasped. The foreign woman, the intruder, wore the ceremonial headress and necklace, and her tall, nude body was covered with the ritual patterns of paint.

The priest blanched. "What sacrilege is this? How-?"

"You said I could make peace with your god. Through the Offering."

"But the Chosen-!"

"Is no longer eligible, as you can see. A substitute is needed, and I volunteer. I will make the peace you needed. I will be the Offering."

The crowd muttered and growled in doubt. The priest shook his head, trying to sort his world back into sense.

"But the Scrolls. The Rules..."

Diana smiled, and recited the Rules as set in the village's sacred Scrolls, speaking loud and clear, in perfect recollection. "The Chosen can be replaced by a volunteer only if deemed equally suitable. Suitable to deserve being a god's bride." Diana stood still, her eyes scanning the crowd. "Am I suitable? Am I worthy enough for your god?"

The crowd grew silent. Eyes, male and female alike, were fixed on the lovely Amazon Princess, on her long legs and shapely hips, on her slender waist and large, proud breasts, on her delicate features and the dazzling eyes that challenged them to deny her.

The priest fought the dryness in his throat. "The Offering... must also be... Must have never..."

Diana nodded, and smiled. "No man born of Earth has ever known my body that way."

The priest stared in disbelief, and the crowd muttered. She was too beautiful, too alluring, too obviously sexual for their accepting such words at face value. Diana understood, and offered her lasso to the priest, placing its coiled length on his hand, while she still gripped it.

"The Lasso of Truth allows no deceit."

The priest's eyes spread wide, as the power surged through him and her alike, joining them in Truth.

"But... You..." His voice failed at the power of her openness. He saw that she had known sex. Sex with women almost as beautiful as her. Sex with one who was much more than just a man, born far among the stars. Sex with a bestial creature that could hardly be called a man. And sex with a fearsome god of distant darkness.

"But no man born of Earth," he ratified out loud, and his hands shook with the barest hint of hope. Hope he had never imagined rekindled.

She had already been chosen once by a god, one whose mere shadow made him shiver. Even beyond the literal reading of the Rules, could any other mortal ever be more fit to wed any god, in power and beauty? The priest could not deny the truth. There was no doubt.

"She-She is worthy."

 

**********************************************

 

The drumming went on, relentless, while Diana waited, with feet set spread apart over the stone, and arms raised above her head, held by chains that she could snap at any instant if she wanted. But instead she waited, bound not by metal but by her word, by the promise she had made to these people and their faith, misplaced as it was.

She waited for the kraken.

Her lasso was coiled tight around her right arm, from elbow to shoulder, and secured between its loops was a small pouch of netting that held two pieces of softly glowing ceramic.

Finally, the water churned violently in advance warning, and the wait was over. Long, flexible stalks of wet flesh broke the sea's surface, reaching for the amazon princess.

 

**********************************************

 

The two young lovers watched in horror and forlorn hope, as the long, grasping tentacles found their target, seizing it, coiling slowly around the long, athletic limbs, the slender waist and buxom torso, squeezing and tugging at the firm flesh with growing curiosity.

The young girl sought refuge in her love's arms and began to cry. She had seen this before. She had feared its happening on her own body, and imagined how the kraken would probe and taste her undeserving body and then tear it to pieces, to be consumed as mere meat, fit only to feed the lowest of hungers, as it always did.

And now it would happen to the brave, beautiful stranger who had saved her, who had given her back her life, who had taken her place and taught her about love.

 

**********************************************

 

The prehensile limbs tightened around her body, dripping seawater as they slid, rubbing, tugging and probing, the myriad sucker mouths on the inner surface clamping hungrily on her flesh, leaving red sucker marks on her soft skin. She grimaced. Her breasts were roughly grasped and squeezed, pulled and kneaded, while the sucker mouths seemed to target the sensitive vicinity of her aureoles and nipples.

Her legs were powerfully tugged further apart at the ankles, spreading her. A thick, wet tentacle slid over her right hip and then moved down her groin. It twitched back and forth as it moved over and past her mound, grinding roughly against her loins, turning about in slow corkscrew fashion, until the line of suckers aligned with her most delicate flesh. The tentacle's thinner tip probed between her tense ass cheeks, while the rest, that quickly tapered into greater thickness, pressed and rubbed at the silken folds all the way up to her mound, the suckers working like dozens of ravenous mouths, clasping on her. Tasting her.

Another tentacle moved to her face, its tip sliding over her chin to seek her mouth, but she twisted her face from side to side in refusal. The tentacles became even more feverish in their pulling and squeezing, the thick one between her legs grinding her outer labia into spreading, exposing her inner flesh to the suckers, and other tentacles joined in, their tapered tips poking and probing, seeking access to the promise of even stronger, deeper tastes.

Diana gasped as one powerful limb tightened viciously around her long neck, but gritted her teeth close as another tip sought her mouth. The wet, salty flesh rubbed against her lips but her teeth remained closed, as did her innermost secrets. But she would afford the creature no easy access. The limbs grabbing her arms and legs pulled with monstrous strength, conveying the creature's annoyance, its power more than enough to have torn apart a normal woman.

But Diana was not a normal woman. She was Wonder Woman.

"GO ON! TAKE ME! TAKE ME NOW!"

 

**********************************************

 

To the crowd's astonishment, in a sudden burst of monstrous strength, the multiple tentacles pulled the Offering away from the rocky wall, the heavy chains snapping like dry algae, drawing her to the water, to vanish beneath the frothing surface.

 

**********************************************

 

The tentacles tore her headdress and necklace away, but the lasso looped around her upper arm held, and she felt the pulsing of the amulet fragments grow stronger, even as she was pulled deeper and deeper into the water, while the creature's grip grew more urgent, more demanding. She knew better than to fight the grasping arms, knowing she had to wait, wait to be taken deeper, taken to the core.

 

**********************************************

 

The priest stood speechless, while many others feel to their knees and cried.

"She was taken. Alive and willing. The Offering is... accepted." He found his strength at last, and raised his arms high above his head. "THE OFFERING IS ACCEPTED!"

Cheers and cries of joy filled the air, covering the young blonde's sobs.

"THE KRAKEN HAS CHOSEN ITS BRIDE! TAKEN HER DEEP, INTO THE SACRED DARKNESS WHERE NO MERE MAN MAY GO! LONG AND FRUITFUL SHALL BE THEIR UNION!"

Away from the rocky shore, water burst upwards, erupting violently again and again, hinting at the powerful match played below the waves. The turbulence moved farther and farther away until it disappeared completely, the water slowly returning to its normal motions, to the peace of gentle swaying.

The priest yelled again: "THE GOD AND ITS BRIDE HAVE JOINED! LET US ALWAYS REMEMBER THE TIME OF THE CHOOSING AND THE TAKING! FOREVER SHALL WE BASK IN THEIR BLESSING!"

The blonder girl smiled through her tears, shaken by uncertainty, but warmed by gratitude and relief.

The old priest turned to her and her beloved, and his brows furrowed. "You two betrayed our trust. You must now be punished."

The young man did not flinch. "Father, I-"

"Silence. You will know now a lifetime of punishment, forced to endure each other, as husband and wife." The old priest's stern expression broke into a weary, but happy smile. "That shall teach you."

Her beloved hugged her tightly, and she looked up, secure in his love. He had touched her, and her alone, even with the beautiful goddess by their side. She would never doubt his devotion, as she would never forget the brave, lovely stranger, and the heartbreaking pleasure of her touch.

 

**********************************************

 

Scattered on the ocean floor, the myriad remains of the kraken would not rot, and drew plentiful fish to the bay, for many, many excellent catch seasons.

 

**********************************************

 

"WHAT-? THAT WAS IT?"

"She did well." The trident's glow faded.

"But after all that-? The tentacles had her and I-! She had accepted to be taken-"

"She was taken. Below the waves."

"But she wasn't-!" The assembled gods and goddesses stared at Zeus, who sat back sullenly. "Damn tease, if you ask me."

Athena shrugged. "You may be hanging around too much with members of the Japanese pantheon, Father."

Poseidon stood, his robes flowing like seawater about him "She showed proper respect. That is just what the sea demands."

Zeus glowered. "Respect? What respect did she-?"

"Flowed and rose, like the waves, like the tides. I rather like her, this Princess of the Amazons. Strong. Adaptable. With unfathomed depths. I shall keep my eye on her."

"Oh, I'm sure you will." Hera smiled cynically. "And think of her depths, too. You are all the same."

Athena stood up. "I say Diana has won her second Challenge. Do you agree, uncle?"

Poseidon assented, while Ares smiled broadly.

"Making the Kraken into sushi. Not the kind of foreign cliche some expected."

Zeus muttered unintelligibly, while Aphrodite scowled at the God of War.

"Our other uncle is not here, and asked to go last." Athena turned to Hera. "Will the Queen of Olympus do the honors next?"

Hera pursed her thin lips. "I must... decide with greater care. Let another choose now."

Athena looked about. "Brothers? Sisters? Who shall test Diana next?"

With a faint smile, Hermes stood up, spinning his metal helmet in his hands. "I can think of something."

 

TO BE CONTINUED


	4. THIRD LABOUR:  THE RIDE OF THE STALLION

THIRD LABOUR: THE RIDE OF THE STALLION

 

Billowy, whispy -Clouds surrounded her, an endless ocean of clear blue extending in all directions. 

There was a down; by reflex she had used her flying power to stay aloft, but it was a weak, faint pull, and there was nothing underneath to fall towards, just more clouds and sky. A sun could be seen peeking behind the shifting clouds, but to her bafflement it was seemingly not always in the same place. The mutable cloudscape made fixing references difficult.

Was this another realm made from a broken aspect of the world? How many such places could there be, each different to the other?

A light breeze played over her, making her long hair flow; it was no longer wet now, just as she was no longer dressed only in paint and accessories. Her clothing had been restored again, this time directly over her body, though her bustier seemed tighter on her bosom than before, and barely covered her past her aureoles. Perhaps that was intentional, she thought, wondering which of the Olympians was responsible. 

The golden lasso remained coiled around her upper arm, the amulet pieces still held by it, and carefully she removed them. Closing her eyes, she felt the faint tug, the call of the amulet, yearning to be whole, leading in a direction as apparently featureless as any other.

Heeding the amulet, she flew.

 

**********************************************

 

Estimating time was suspect, but it was nearly an hour of flight before between the nebulous shrouds she sighted several masses of land, suspended in air, close to each other, in defiance of even the weak gravity. Islands, she realized, floating islands adrift in a sea of water vapor. The blanketing clouds made their number uncertain, and judging their size was also difficult; her initial estimates needed adjustment after it took her longer than expected to grow close enough to see details. Once near enough, she cautiously circled the larger mass at a distance, noticing a few forest-covered mountains and vast short-grassed plains, but no signs of human habitation. To her surprise, a river born in one of the surrounding, smaller islands, cascaded down in a misty spray to fall on the larger one, feeding a large lake. 

She saw movement in the plain by the lake, and flew down. 

White as the clouds, they raced over the green field, fleet and graceful, beauty in motion. Diana stared, fascinated; they were the most beautiful horses she had ever seen. She landed carefully at a prudent distance and moved closer on foot. The herd grew nervous at first, but she approached slowly, careful to avoid threatening moves, and after a while earned their trust with soft words and gentle motions. Soon her hands moved over their strong flanks and necks, caressing the long manes, whispering compliments. She wondered who kept these fine creatures here. They were most likely not wild, not only because they accepted her presence so quickly, but also since as far as she could see, they appeared to be all mares. That did not seem a natural situation.

"Oh, crap," a voice many paces behind her muttered behind her. "Surprise inspection!"

 

**********************************************

 

Trying not to spook the mares, Diana turned cautiously, prepared for the worst, worried about not having heard anyone else approach amidst the noises of the herd. She could not afford to be so careless.

Clad in brown and green, they walked out of the knee-high grass that had hid them from sight. Their feet shuffled nervously and their eyes did not rise from the ground but for fleeting, anxious glances. 

"Welcome, O Exalted Lady Who graces us with her presence!" The greeting by the older one had ceremonial intonations. "Blessed are our humble charges and we lowly servants by Your Presence!"

"-Thy Presence!" 

The older one ignored the correction from his companion and knelt on one knobby knee, followed with frantic speed by the others.

Diana looked at the half-dozen two-feet-tall humanoids with growing bafflement. "There's no need for that. Who are-?"

"Forgive us for not having been ready for Your arrival! We are but simple hands of The Gods! We-!"

"There's nothing to forgive. I don't think-"

"Please, Great Lady of the Hunt, Maiden of the Forest, accept our-!"

"Maiden of the-? You think I am-?"

"See! Told you!" Another of the small goblin-like creatures rushed forward, pushing the previous spokesman aside. "We meant no offense, Oh Most Beauteous Aphrodite! We're just struck dumb by Your countenance!"

"-Thy countenance!"

"Aphrodite? But I'm not-"

A third jumped up, rising his arms. "O GREAT POWERFUL HERA! HIGHEST QUEEN OF OLYMPUS! FORGIVE THE BLINDNESS OF THESE IDIOTS-!"

"Please! I'm not-!"

The first little man shook his head. "Queen Hera? Are you joking? We would have been punished into oblivion already if-"

The second one gestured towards Diana. "Come on! Look! Who else but Lady Aphrodite Herself would look like THAT?"

The third one pulled on his scraggly, spare hair. "SHUT UP! I BEG YOU LISTEN NOT THEM GREAT HERA-! THEY ARE MORONS! YOUR OWN FABLED BEAUTY IS UNMISTAKABLE-!"

"THY-!"

"Didn't you brain-dead assholes see Her with the mares? Who else but the Patron Goddess of all Beasts would-?"

"Like Aphrodite couldn't charm any creature alive or dead! LOOK AT HER! Didn't just looking give you the hardest-?"

"SHUT THE FUCK UP! YOU'RE BEFORE A GODDESS-!"

"I am not a goddess," Diana cut in, embarrassed. "Olympus forgive me, I'm just-"

"She's incognito, you idiots! Respect her choice of disguise-!"

"I'm not-"

"Please, O GREAT LADY, we know we are really behind schedule! As our latest filed report explained, the procedure continues to show complications-!"

"Damn thing is not cooperating at all-!"

"Really, I'm not-!"

"We need an extension-!"

"We have the paperwork ready to-!"

"WILL YOU JUST LISTEN TO ME?"

The short beings froze into silence at Diana's outburst, except for the whimper of one whose leather breeches showed an obvious damp patch growing.

"I am not a goddess. Incognito or not. Honestly."

One of them glanced about before speaking up nervously. "Really?"

"Really."

"You really look like a goddess."

Diana could not help but blush. "I-Thank you, but really, I'd never dream of passing myself as an Olympian. I swear so."

The one with the moist crotch grimaced. "Then who the fuck are you?"

"I am Diana, Princess of the Amazons of Themyscira."

"Oh, shit. Royalty? Should we bow again or curtsy or what-?"

"That isn't necessary-"

"Wait, doesn't she have way too much tit there for an Amazon? Didn't those broads cut off-?"

"Will you shut up? Be respectful!"

"Tell that isn't a lot of-"

"She's royalty! She may have been sent by Olympus!"

"Well, in a way, I was."

"CRAP! I KNEW IT! WE'RE GOING TO BE FIRED!"

Diana sighed. "We need to talk."

 

*********************************************

 

The complex of low galleys was attached to a gentle hill just by the great plain, their roofs covered by green growth, making them difficult to discern from the air. There was at least a dozen more of the small cattle-hands, performing various tasks in and around the stables. Small as they were, they were clearly skilled in their crafts. The fillies were at ease under their ministrations, and proved compliant when needed.

Diana nodded with approval. "You are doing good work with them."

The elder, a wizened headman named Eliopoulus, scratched the fringe of scraggly hair surrounding his pointed ears. "Only in the care of the fillies, I'm afraid. Our primary purpose still eludes us. Soon, if we cannot produce any viable offspring from the Prime Subject, we'll need to start arranging for the breeding of yet another new beta generation, and hope for better luck. But I fear it would be equally fruitless."

"How long have you been trying?"

"This is the fortieth generation." He looked at his oversized feet, shaking his head. "We may be at the end of all viable paths. The environmental conditions, including magical substrates, are as optimum as can be achieved. We have scouted and analyzed all prospects of improvement by further crossing with every breed currently on Earth, studying any possible genetic enhancement, praying to Great Poseidon for guidance, anything that would allow for increased strength and resilience, but I am afraid we can no longer improve the herd by just selective breeding with normal equine strains."

"But they are already magnificent! I've never seen their like, on Themyscira or elsewhere! How much stronger would they need to be? How drastic is the difference with the stallion?"

"The first attempts all proved fatal, Princess. Catastrophically so. Our last ones resulted only in broken bones and related injuries, but the procedure really never progressed beyond the preliminaries." His expression was pained. "We've been forced to put down so many, Princess. So many of my best, my most lovely ones. I may now... lack the heart to keep trying."

"But... what about bypassing the act by-?"

"It can't be done! He's too wild, too powerful! Son of Poseidon himself. He could never be made to-"

Diana fingered the golden lasso hanging in glowing loops from her belt. "I can help."

 

**********************************************

 

Already thin and pliable, the local fabric of space bent and twisted, creating a path, a shortcut, that the headman and the Amazon Princess used to walk onto a rocky plateau.

"I could have flown us here," Diana said, her voice low.

"He may have seen us approach. The less conspicuous, the better." 

With a gesture, the headman then bade Diana to crouch next to him behind a boulder. Peering over its edge, they could see the mighty spring that flowed from a mountain-face, its water filling a large basin before overflowing to cascade down the edge of the plateau, towards the other island miles below. 

"His hoof struck there. He returns daily to drink from the source."

Diana nodded, and sat on her heels, to wait.

It did not take long. She first heard the loud beating of the powerful wings, then the noise of unshod hoofs, harder than metal, landing on stone. The wind favored them, blowing their scent away, so she could smell him instead, a strong, deep aroma of sweat and musk. Slowly, she edged around the boulder, her soled feet stepping with care lest she make noise.

Then she saw him.

Diana thought she knew what beauty was, what grace was; but she had been mistaken. She had never really known, not until now.

White as the clouds and as graceful as their dance on the sky, he pranced, taking to the air with effortless elegance every few steps, his lines clear and fluid as the purest stream, yet boasting with each motion of all the hidden might that water may have. 

Diana stared, fascinated. Son of Poseidon himself, bred on the Gorgon Medusa, taken to the skies by the gods centuries ago. 

Staring with awestruck fascination, she could not help but whisper his name.

"Pegasus."

 

**********************************************

 

The great winged stallion reared and neighed, his voice pure and powerful as the greatest waterfall, and then, before Diana could move, he was gone.

"You spooked him!" Grimacing, the headman turned towards the Amazon.

But she was also gone.

 

**********************************************

 

He was a flash of silver, fading fast, losing himself easily in the vastness of the cloudy skies. But she had her eye on him, the eye of the huntress that was one of the gifts of Artemis, goddess of the hunt, and her speed was that of Hermes himself, flashing red, blue, white and gold as she raced in pursuit.

Her speed surprised him, but only for an instant. He neighed and banked to a side, his wide wings sweeping the sky with heartbreaking grace, before he folded them close to the lean, muscular flanks and dove down, hurtling like a missile through the wispy blankets of vapor.

 

**********************************************

 

She had raced against horses before, on foot, in Themyscira, before she had learned to master the gifts of Hermes.

She had never lost a race. Ever.

But she had never known what a real race was. Not until now.

She laughed, caught in the joy of flight, of speed, and the chase.

Her long hair danced black in the sky as she followed the divine stallion, and golden fire twirled in her hands.

 

**********************************************

 

She caught up with him, again and again, and the golden lasso crossed the sky like lightning, but despite his size, despite the wide spread of his wingspan, he was never even touched. He banked and swerved and sped away, quick and nimble, flowing past her attempts like the quicksilver which his shinning mane resembled.

Diana called out his name again, in challenge and praise.

His neigh in return both mocked and encouraged her.

Whispering a brief prayer to Hermes, Diana twisted and swung about, diving at the vanishing speck, focusing her will on her gifts of flight and speed.

She had never lost a race.

 

**********************************************

 

They raced for hours, across countless miles of sky. Many times she thought him lost, but the gift of Artemis never failed her, and she always found him again.

Or perhaps he wanted to be found, loving the race as well, enjoying the unique challenge.

She grinned with almost manic delight, chasing the beautiful steed, pure and distant as a wild dream.

 

**********************************************

 

They dove again, faster than ever, cleaving the clouds like meteors hurtling to their doom, mere seconds away from the other, but at such speed that a second seemed inexorably out of reach.

But Diana would not quit. She had never lost a race.

She could not remember when she had last enjoyed herself so much.

Suddenly, the clouds were gone and rock spread before them, a cruel, sprawling wall of stone, spreading in all directions, looming so much closer every fraction of an instant. Close, too close. And they were going too fast.

Sound had been long left behind for a cry of surprise.

Marshaling all her power, Diana instantly threw her lasso yet again, and the braided strands of gold finally found purchase in the long equine neck. Twisting with all her strength, Diana tossed the stallion aside in a wide sweep, deflecting his flight away from the rocky obstacle with a jerk that would have easily severed the neck of a lesser creature.

An infinitesimal moment later, Diana's back struck the floating island.

 

**********************************************

 

Slowly, against every demand of her body, Diana opened her eyes. Sorting through the fog of fading unconsciousness, she recalled what had happened. She recalled focusing on strength, on resilience, calling upon the endurance of the Earth itself. 

She was lying face up, in the center of the wide and deep crater that her impact had carved into a floating mountain of rock, and above her, looming close to lick gently at her cheek, was a blurry vision of silver and pearl, trailing a sliver of gold.

Instantly, she reached out and grabbed her lasso.

 

**********************************************

 

Her battered and bruised body screamed with indignant pain as she strained with effort, the lasso digging into her hands like sharp blades while the stallion fought for freedom. His initial startled tug had pulled her away from the crater with almost as much violence as that of her impact, and his fight against the lasso became only more frantic with each second. But she kept her grip on the lasso, and focused on her power of flight, leveraging against the wild pulls of the bound steed.

She called out to him with concern, worried about his injuring himself in the desperate struggling, but the flying horse knew only that it had to be free.

With a pang of regret and guilt, Diana held on.

 

**********************************************

 

For hours, Pegasus flew and pulled and banked wildly, fighting Diana's hold, fighting the pull of the unbreakable lasso, with power that spoke of his Olympian blood.

If the chase had been a delight, a daring challenge of speed and agility, this instead was a nightmarish punishment, a painful struggle, a hateful ordeal, for Pegasus and Diana alike. It pained the Amazon Princess beyond the physical. 

The flying horse was freedom and swiftness embodied, untamed speed made flesh. How dare she try tame him? What right had she to bind him, to tie him down, to deny his nature?

Yet she had a mission to accomplish. One she dare not fail.

Shaken by uncertainty, her grip almost failed for an instant, when suddenly the winged horse rushed at her, sharp hooves aimed at her face.

 

**********************************************

 

"She did it! SHE HAS HIM!"

The cattle-hands looked up in amazement, gathering in a hurry, as slowly, Diana flew down, carefully lowering the bound and trussed Pegasus into the center of a cleared enclosure. His legs were bound together and his wings folded against his body, tightly wrapped in multiple loops of the golden lasso, yet he struggled and neighed with fury. When placed on the ground, he twisted and shook violently, but the lariat could not be broken, not even by his strength. 

"Would ya look at that!"

"She got him all tied up!"

"Ah! Some would pay well for one like her to-!"

"She tamed him!"

"Silence." The elder shouldered his way past his assistants. "Anyone who thinks him tamed is welcome to try approach him." 

There were no takers. The elder turned to the Amazon Princess. "You got him. Impressive."

Diana's face showed a turmoil of conflicting emotions, her grip on the taut lasso shifting uneasily. "It was not easy."

"There's a derivative of the Mist of Lethe we can apply in small dosage, so he may tended to, and you may rest."

Diana shook her head. "The natural way may still work. He's just too rash, too energetic. He needs to work out excess energy. I can-"

"You think you can actually tame him? Make him docile?"

"Tame-? No." Diana did not shift her eyes from her captive, and her voice grew pained. "He should not- He must not."

"But then-?"

"I can try to wear him down. Spend his strength against me."

The elder nodded, but with little conviction.

 

**********************************************

 

With swift, skilled motions, Diana released the stallion's legs, though her lasso still wrapped around his neck and body, keeping his wings bound down. Still, he jumped, with power beyond any earthly equine, and would have cleared out of the whole complex if not for Diana's firm hold. Though she stood in a floating island, this had once been part of Gaea, and with her feet planted on its ground, she could focus on stability, and not be moved, her strength that of the Earth itself.

She pulled, and maneuvered, giving slack and taking it away, again and again, making Pegasus return to the ground when he jumped, trotting by his side as he raced wildly by the enclosure's wide perimeter. She ducked and dodged when he lunged at her, and often escaped the threatening hoofs by such a small margin the onlookers gasped in fright.

She spoke to him, trying to calm him, to gain his trust. But he would not be cowed.

She expected no less of him. She remained after all his captor, his jailer. She kept him in the enclosure, but did not try to force him, would not humiliate him. She could never dream of trying to break his spirit.

The elder looked on, shaking his head. 

"Won't work," he told his aide. "She's conflicted, and he can sense it, judging it weakness. He's trying to wear her down instead."

 

**********************************************

 

"Princess, you must rest!"

Dusty, sweaty, and weary, she shook her head.

 

**********************************************

 

Uncounted hours later, the stallion finally stood still, and stayed that way, trembling, and breathing.

The few grooms still on duty ran for the elder.

Diana frowned, her breathing showing her weariness as well.

 

**********************************************

 

Cautiously, they brought the mare, a beautiful creature whose sheen of vitality would make any equine breeder weep with envy. Pegasus canted backwards, his nostrils flaring, smelling the heat on her. She began to trot by the  
edge of the enclosure, and after a moment's hesitation, he followed. 

Diana gave him slack, letting the two get close, and ran in pace, at a distance, watchful.

 

**********************************************

 

Finally, it happened. Rising his forelegs, Pegasus mounted the willing mare, with a fluid lunge that made the crowded hands hold their breath with anticipation.

He thrust once, twice. At his third thrust the mare was roughly driven to her fore-knees with a neigh of pain and fear.

Cursing between gritted teeth, Diana pulled, tugging the stallion off the downed mare.

Pegasus reared violently, his voice loud with anger and frustration.

"Sedate him!" The elder's voice boomed with power belying his size. "NOW!"

 

**********************************************

 

"Is the mare-?"

"You were fast enough. She'll recover."

"And him?"

"The dosage needed to put him under was thrice larger than expected." Several grooms attended the sleeping stallion, their monitoring devices surprisingly modern for their context. "Once we're sure he is stable and suffering no side effects, we can proceed with the manual-" He paused at evident discomfort. "You need not be present if you-"

"No. I have to see it through."

"Are you sure?"

Diana nodded. "I got him here. He's my responsibility now. I want to... do it myself."

 

**********************************************

 

Lying on his side, Pegasus stirred just slightly as she entered the stall. Her lasso still held him, but it was now secured to massive security structures deeply anchored into the bedrock below. She placed her hand gently on his flank, feeling his rib-cage expand with each breath.

She had spent time at the stables in Themyscira when younger, learning. She knew what had to be done.

 

**********************************************

 

She stroked gently, yet insistently, caressing and encouraging, bringing him closer to full hardness, the massive member growing longer than her forearm. 

The elder whispered advice, his eyes alternating towards the monitoring devices. The collection paraphernalia had been readied. After a while, he shook his head.

"The drug is inhibiting his functions too much. We need to get him closer to wakefulness, but it may be too dangerous. He could-"

"Go ahead," Diana said, continuing her ministrations.

 

**********************************************

 

The winged stallion squirmed and tossed, his breathing faster and faster, as Diana worked on him with increased fervor. The equine erection was almost fully rigid, and glistened with the lubrication. Ignoring the elder's misgivings, she drew much closer, pressing tight against him, using her body to provide more stimulation, rubbing against his male-hood with her torso, while whispering to him, egging him on.

Roused even further by the stimulation, Pegasus snorted and shook, his legs trying to kick, to find purchase and stand. The elder cried a warning, but Diana held them in position, using her strength to keep the stallion stable, trying to reassure him with her touch, her voice, even as she pushed him to further excitement.

The elder spoke his encouragement, the anticipation his voice rising, as did the tension in the stallion's body.

Pegasus neighed loudly, a powerful shudder running through his restrained frame, and Diana looked up, catching his eye.

Artemis had gifted her with the eye for the hunt, but also communion with the beasts, the enhanced empathy that allowed her to bond with the creatures men called animals, to share and sense their feelings and intentions. She suddenly was aware of what was happening as if being a detached observer. She saw Pegasus bound, held against his will, drugged into submission, while being physically stimulated, forced, into sexual arousement, driven mechanically towards culmination. Diana blinked, unsettled, and for an instant, she was again under the Manticore, held still, helpless under her ravisher's hateful weight and the maddening numbness born of his sting, while he used her, entered her, forced her body to obey the instinctive responses her mind renounced, inflaming her flesh with unwanted excitement that rushed her toward orgasm.

"No," she cried, softly, and drew away. 

Her hand reached for her lasso and its knots untied, loosening, In response to her will, the golden lasso's coils loosened, falling away from the anchor structures. 

With a loud neigh, Pegasus sprang to his feet, free. He kicked, and the structure behind him shattered. Amidst the cries and curses of the small men, he jumped straight up, crashing through the roof, the loose lasso hanging from his neck. His wings spread wide and beat with such power that all near were flattened to the ground by the resulting turbulence, except for the Amazon Princess who stood straight, her eyes full of relief while following the diminishing speck of silver and gold in the sky.

The elder staggered to his feet. "Why? Why did you-?"

"He is too proud, too... pure. To force him like that..." She clenched her fists. "It was wrong. I couldn't do that to him. Not like that. It would have been a sin."

"Princess, all our work, generations of effort-!"

"The end does not justify the means."

"Then all is lost. We have failed-"

"There is always a way. A right, proper way." 

Without further explanation, Diana took to the air.

 

**********************************************

 

Diana finally caught up with the winged stallion by the spring where she had first found him. He reared and whinnied, his whole body screaming his outrage.

"You have every right to be angry." She spoke softly, remaining at a distance, her empty hands spread apart in a gesture of appeasement. "I wronged you. I-I can only say that I'm sorry. I am truly sorry." 

Pegasus snorted and paced back and forth, angrily.

"I was so fixated on achieving what was expected of me, on succeeding at the task I was given, that I almost did to you... just as an enemy had done to me." She grimaced. "Almost did the same that I had faced and hated." 

She lowered her eyes, and went down to one knee, in contrition. 

"Please accept my apologies." 

She remained still, not looking up even when his hoofs struck sparks off the rocky ground barely a step away from her.

"Please forgive me."

After a while, Pegasus stopped, close to the kneeling amazon. He lowered his head and gave hers a nudge.

Diana looked up at the stallion. To her relief, the anger was gone from his eyes. 

He snorted softly and nudged her head again, gently, before stepping back a pace. 

Slowly, Diana stood up. Pegasus closed in and brushed the side of his head against hers. She closed her eyes, relieved, and leaned against him, her cheek against his. 

"Thank you," she whispered, basking in the warm contact, in the noble creature's forgiveness, in his generous lack of resentment. 

With careful slowness, she placed one hand on his strong neck, running her fingers over his warm skin, feeling the powerful muscles beneath, the steady beat of his flowing life. She stepped slightly to a side, still stroking him softly, and his head followed her.

"I wish I could... make amends." Her hand slid cautiously towards the loose noose of her lasso around his neck. "Please allow me to finish releasing you."

As she touched the golden rope, there was a sudden exponential jump in her perception of his emotional and physical state. She almost stumbled backwards, shaken.

"By Aphrodite-!" Her face grew warm, and she looked away, only to become even more flustered by a glancing view of his hindquarters. "Gods! You really-?" 

She looked up quickly, and brushed her hair aside, before removing the lasso from his neck, willing her hands not to tremble. Surely it was not even physically possible. 

"Of course, you've never... because of your strength. But I... I really couldn't..."

His head nuzzled against her cheek again, and then moved down her neck and shoulder, to her upper chest. His nose rubbed against her cleavage, nudging the small pouch that held the amulet fragments, hanging from her neck by a strong leather strap. Diana breathed deeply, unsettled. Two points of growing stiffness began to push against the gold-plated cups of her bustier, while his head moved lower, nostrils flaring as he slid down her midsection.

She stepped back, unsteady with uncertainty, perhaps even fear. She felt his nervous energy, his barely restrained urgency, and again became aware of both the parallels and contrasts to her past experience with the Manticore. She had been wronged then, but used the very act of her abuse to achieve victory, to overcome her predicament and prevail over her foe. In turn, she had almost wronged this noble, beautiful creature, with an equally improper imposition. Did she not owe him reparations for her actions? Could she at least use the very act she had almost forced upon him to instead redeem her offense?

She stepped forward, and pressed again against his neck. "I truly should... earn your forgiveness." She bit her lower lip, nervous, but determined. She moved along his flank, stroking him, pressing hands and body against his powerful frame, feeling his rib-cage expand and contact with his breathing. She leaned down. His now obvious willingness made the task seem much more daunting than before. "And it's... the least I could do."

 

**********************************************

 

Eliopoulus, the headsman, ran as fast as his old legs allowed, summoned from his quarters by the multitude of excited voices. He reached the clearing out of breath, and leaned on younger shoulders, to stare in surprise.

Pegasus spread his wings and reared, his voice loud and clear. He settled down and lowered his head, nuzzling against the shoulder of the disheveled Amazon Princess. Her long black hair was wild and caked with drying fluids, much like those covering her skin and frayed clothes. Her golden lasso was clasped at her hip, and the stallion stood by her side, unbound, yet completely at ease.

She shifted her weight unsteadily from foot to foot, apparently on the verge of exhaustion, yet she smiled, stroking the stallion's silver mane. 

"You can bring one of the mares to him now." 

 

**********************************************

 

Diana whispered softly in the stallion's ear, and stepped aside, her steps slow and careful. 

Confidently, Pegasus strode towards the mare, a lovely, vibrant creature of dappled coat and shiny eyes. 

"Gently, dear," Diana called out, when he mounted the mare. "You know how."

The grooms stood ready, prepared for the worst, but no intervention became necessary. Soon, all started clapping softly, among subdued laughter and cheers, excited yet wary of spoiling the stallion's mood. 

"He knows his strength now," Eliopoulus said, amazed. "He can measure himself, and what his mate can take."

Diana nodded, smiling. 

"Bring him another," she said, when Pegasus finished. "And ready several more. He will go on for all day." 

"All day?"

"Oh, yes. He is truly tireless." 

 

**********************************************

 

"The project is saved, gods be praised!" 

"Praised indeed." She smiled. She had slept for several hours, and had just bathed and changed into clean robes provided by her hosts, before joining the headsman at his table for a repast of assorted fruits and dates. 

"How can we thank you, Princess?"

"There's no need for that. It was my pleasure. To help you, and him."

"We must wait for confirmation, but if just one out of each ten foals successfully, it will be enough." Eliopoulus was too excited to touch his food, and Diana just picked at the plates politely. "But most likely it shall be more than that. He has godly blood. Olympian blood. It's almost guaranteed!"

Diana raised one eyebrow. "Really?"

"Oh, yes. The potency of Olympian bloodlines ensures offspring in nearly all matings with mortal partners." 

"All... matings?" 

"Oh, yes, historically-"

"Even involving... different species?"

"That happened often in the old days, but it's not a concern here. While Pegasus was sired on a human-form dam, he is mostly equine anatomically."

"Of course he is."

"So the mares are perfectly compatible. All our studies-"

"But if he mated with a different kind of female? A human one?"

"A human? That hardly seems possible. Even with the control he now shows, his size and strength-"

"Lord Poseidon coupled in full equine shape with Medusa."

"Who was not an ordinary human. She was a Gorgon, descended from Gaia-"

"But not immortal, and was changed into monstrous shape only afterwards, precisely because of what happened-"

"Still, she was surely far stronger and more resilient than-"

"As I am."

"Exactly. It would need someone with physical attributes as enhanced as yours to even complete such a coitus. Even discounting size, he's so much stronger than even a normal Earthly horse that-"

"So is it possible that he could actually... impregnate someone like me?"

The elder headsman frowned. "Possible? Why, it is. Particularly here. In modern Earth, the underlying physical laws may impede such miscegenation, even with his godly blood, but in realms such as this, it's far more likely. The magical sub-strata here are particularly favorable, that's why the project was located-" 

"I see. And how about other magical creatures?"

"Other-?"

"Like a manticore. Could such a being-?"

"Nonsense! Pegasus and a manticore? I doubt highly that-"

"I meant a manticore and... someone like me. In a similar magical realm."

"Ah, an interesting scenario." He held his chin, deep in thought. "It would depend on various factors. Most such beings were magically-spawned hybrids, so even on old Earth, with the stronger magical fields of the time, they'd be most likely sterile. But in differently patterned realities like these accessible via Tartarus, it might be quite possible, if involving someone capable of enduring the physical rigors of such an act and bearing the results."

"Someone like me." Diana stood, and walked towards the curtained window. "So the danger exists."

"Danger? Well, yes, if you'd call it like that."

"And the possible offspring... would they... take after the father or the mother?"

"Another interesting conjecture. When in centuries past, Olympians in bestial shapes coupled with mortals, the results were most often human, since such was their basic essence, despite the shapes worn. But when mortals bred with magical creatures, as did Phasiphae, wife of Minos, the result-"

Diana frowned. "The Minotaur."

"Yes, reportedly it bore combined animal and human features. Similar origins are speculated for Kentaurides. Some vague records even speak about the famous Atalan-"

"How soon after the act could one know, about such... conception?" 

"Well, the seed of Pegasus, or any other being of Olympian-blood, could conceivably survive and remain potent for several weeks."

"So the time of the month would be irrelevant."

"Yes." The headsman rose from his seat, and stared at the beautiful Amazon standing over twice his size. He cleared his throat before speaking again: "If my lady would remain with us for a couple of weeks, I'd be honored to do the necessary... tests."

Diana turned, with a one-sided smile. The headsman was no fool. "My quest must continue. I must still locate the amulet fragment in this realm." She shrugged. "At every step, there are many risks. Of many natures. I must face them all the same." 

The headsman nodded. "You are an avatar of the Olympians, Princess. Your choices are your own, and your trials are beyond what one like me could ever bear, much less judge. You honored us with your help, and will always have our gratitude." He bowed and pressed his head against her hands. "I know not of this... manticore. But Pegasus is a demigod, of Olympian blood, Princess." He looked up. "You may see it as... a blessing."

Diana did not reply.

 

**********************************************

 

She heard the neigh and awoke. Her clothes, mended and cleaned, lay on a table by the bed that had been improvised to accommodate her height. She rose, taking them.

Heavy clouds in their slow drift had covered the erratic sun, creating a semblance of night, letting only a faint light pass, yet Pegasus still shone like bright silver among the shadows. Diana felt her heart jump at his pristine beauty, but she placed her hands on her hips and spoke sternly.

"You may have really gotten me in serious trouble, you know?"

With the vast wings folded by his side, Pegasus cantered forward, towards her. She tensed at his proximity, her body reacting to his very physical presence, to his scent, his aura of power, grace, and virility; that brought intense echoes of what had come before.

 

**********************************************

 

She had stroked his length, gently, but firmly, and the spongy member grew harder and harder in her hands, under her tongue and lips, much faster than the previous time, whose memory she now sought to dispel. The large, pendulous scrotum was a darker silver, and she kissed and licked it tenderly at first, sucking playfully at the testicles within before releasing them, enjoying his strong taste and smell. She then licked up the length of his shaft, ending with her lips on its flaring end, kissing its rim before opening her mouth as wide as she could. 

She almost choked instantly. He sought to thrust, powerfully, into her mouth, but she managed to bid him to stay still with her touch, her hands guiding his motions, instructing him to control his energy, his restless anticipation, and let her do the work. 

It took mere seconds for him to explode, filling her mouth and spilling all about her, in sprays that bathed her face and chest, like the fountains and springs classically associated to his name. With eyes closed, she swallowed, choked and spit, overwhelmed by the shower of warm, fluid essence of life, that coated her face and body. 

 

**********************************************

 

His nose again nuzzled her cheek.

Diana breathed deeply, closing her eyes. "If the headsman is right, even if I succeed at this quest, I may... have to give some very... awkward explanations."

He snorted and his muzzle moved down her neck.

"Gods, you spent hours mounting dozens of fillies! Haven't you had enough?" 

 

**********************************************

 

It had not been enough. He remained hard, perhaps even more than before, and his restless need, was unabated.

She gasped and breathed heavily, her hands pushing on his powerful hind-legs to moving back and from under him, feeling all of his built-up tension, his powerful vitality, through the contact with his warm skin, sharing his nervous energy, his restlessness as if it were his own. 

Surely she could not.

She was a Princess, and Champion of her people. Pegasus, marvelous and unique as he was in his winged splendor, in his almost breath-taking grace and power, was a horse. Even the Manticore had been clearly a sentient creature, despite his grotesqueness, and ultimate base nature. While clearly above any mundane horse in every respect, could Pegasus be considered a sentient as well? Was his Olympian heritage manifested only in his physical powers and equine beauty? 

She could only know for certain the intensity of his feelings, of his need, for her, of her; so powerful and clear and overwhelming, rushing through her mind and body alike, so intense that she could not keep from being swept along in its careening escalation, in its demand for release.

And what about her own feelings? Even if she could ignore her emphatic response, her echoing of his overwhelming urges, how did she truly feel towards such an outrageous choice?

She got nervously to her feet, shaking her head and wiping her face.

While Pegasus was by blood a demigod, a scion of Poseidon himself, she had put her people in deadly danger by refusing the advances of the highest among the Olympians. How could she take such an opposite choice now? Just because she felt she owed compensation? Just because, unlike before, it now felt... right?

 

**********************************************

 

His nose brushed her hair aside with a quick nudge, exposing her upper chest. His warm breath on the sensitive skin above the swell of her breasts gave her goosebumps. 

He snorted softly, and then drew back slightly. His mouth opened, exposing his perfect teeth.

She held her breath, nervous. He had not done that before. After an instant of hesitation she arched her back, pushing her chest forward.

 

**********************************************

 

She backed to the face of a sloping cliff, loosening the lacing at her back. 

 

**********************************************

 

She wondered nervously if he would bite at her chest through her top, or would his teeth just fasten on its fabric, to tug it off, as prelude to more. How rough would it be to feel his teeth there, on her teats?

Her nipples ached in tense expectation.

 

**********************************************

 

Stepping off her damp clothes, she tossed her soaked hair to a side, and turned, leaning forward at the waist to place her hands firmly against a rocky ledge. She spread her long legs wide, and set her booted feet flat, willing them steady against the hard ground. She would need to be well anchored.

 

**********************************************

 

"Gently, please," she muttered. 

 

**********************************************

 

For a moment, the uncertainty returned, approaching panic, and she nearly balked at that last moment. Nearly.

 

**********************************************

 

Gleaming pearly white despite the darkness of night, Pegasus teeth flashed forward.

 

**********************************************

 

Diana gasped.

 

**********************************************

 

Pegasus drew back, tugging softly at the small pouch now held between his teeth.

Diana blinked repeatedly in surprise. 

"Oh? Oh. I-Is that-?" She stepped forward, following the beckoning of his pull on the pouch, her face flushed with frustrated anticipation. "What are you... trying to tell me?"

Pegasus tugged again at the pouch containing the two amulet fragments, and scrapped at the ground with one hoof. 

Trusting him, Diana untied the securing strap, letting the pouch be held by his teeth alone. 

Pegasus gestured with his whole head, gestured up.

Diana frowned, and then nodded.

He leaned and released the pouch into her hand. Then he bent his forelegs and knelt before her.

"You want me to... mount you?"

 

**********************************************

 

Ultimately, her resolve held, as did her balance, and the strength in her legs, when unable to wait any longer, Pegasus mounted the Amazon Princess. 

 

**********************************************

 

Diana sat astride the stallion powerful back, leaning forward to hold onto his strong neck, her knees bent high because of his wings, thighs pressed firmly against his sides. She gripped the silken silver of his mane, the pouch held as well in her right hand, its strap wrapped several times around it.

Pegasus flew fast, rushing through thickenings clouds, while she felt the amulet's call grow in power every second.

She was surprised at the stallion's understanding and initiative. Could he sense the amulet's spell, its call to be whole? What else did he know that she had not realized? 

Could he be so much more intelligent than she had believed? How did that change her feelings about what they had shared? Should they change at all?

The clouds about them grew denser and darker, and suddenly they were shaken roughly by powerful turbulence, almost dislodging Diana and throwing her off his back. Pegasus neighed, and beat his wings faster and faster.

 

**********************************************

 

The winged horse rode her, rode her hard and fast. 

 

**********************************************

 

A fierce storm formed fast before and about them, and lightning flashed between pitch-black patches. Diana closed her eyes against stinging wind gusts, and gripped his mane more securely, pressing her head to his neck, her trailing hair actually pulling painfully on her head. 

Resolutely, Pegasus dove right at the swirling maelstrom before him, a dark pit of ominous depth, while Diana strained to hold on, to endure the ride.

 

**********************************************

 

She strained under him, under his great weight and size, and even greater power, gasping, grunting and crying out in pain, and shock, and astonishment. 

His forelegs had landed on the sloping granite surface before and above her, and where his diamond-like hoofs struck, water gushed forth, twin newborn springs foreshadowing the goal to which the stallion and his mate raced with wild urgency.

After she helped guide him, he had rushed into her in a single fluid stroke, diving through her wetness despite her tightness and his size. Driving all the way into her depths, the softer tissue of his flaring head struck with staccato intensity against the sensitive spot just below her cervix, making her gasp, and moan and whimper. She was amazed by how big and powerful he felt over her, and inside her: too big to take completely no matter how much she wished she could. She knew not how much of him she managed to take, but even the partial penetration hurt her as she had never been hurt there before, not by the manticore, not even by Darkseid himself. Yet she managed, enduring the dramatic impalement of the stallion's enormous phallus, holding her stance under him despite the power of thrusts and his great mass, while his no less inhuman mass filled her to capacity, filling her whole body with more than just pain.

 

**********************************************

 

The darkness around them was broken only by the furious barrages of lightning that barely missed them, followed by deafening thunder. Gravity had lost meaning as wind gusts battered them from all directions and monstrous vortexes grasped at them hungrily. The only direction amidst the chaos remained the call of the amulet, an insubstantial tug beckoning faintly under the savage fury of the storm. Only Pegasus could have kept their course true. She knew it now. She had to be taken this way by him. 

 

**********************************************

 

She had to be taken this way by him. She knew it now.

She could have never forgiven herself otherwise. She would have never stopped wondering about it.

She cried, yelled and screamed, louder and louder, calling his name, calling on her gods, her patron goddesses, and calling out her pleasure, her rising ecstasy.

They had raced before, and she had laughed and loved the challenge of striving to match him, to beat him, but that joy paled now before that of this different kind of match. Despite his recent ejaculation, he still beat her in the race to culmination, arriving before her to the peak of pleasure, but his sudden eruption deep within her pushed her there instantly, and her arms and legs almost faltered with the power of her orgasm. She shook with delight as he filled her with mighty bursts of so much hot seed that it flushed down her long, trembling legs, cascading to the ground. But her strength did not falter there, nor when her rush towards a second climax mere moments later proved even more intense.

 

**********************************************

 

Diana gritted her teeth and clenched her fists, squeezing her legs about Pegasus with all her power, while the raging chaos around her sought to dismount her. Suddenly a surge of hail struck them with the power of a giant's fist, and her legs lost purchase, leaving her trailing after Pegasus by her grip of his mane, shaken about like a ragdoll. Realizing the precariousness of her situation, Diana decided to risk everything and let go of his mane with one hand.

 

**********************************************

 

With a loud series of cracks, the whole rock formation against which Diana leaned, broke apart, unable to endure further the repeated impacts of the stallion's thrusting. 

Diana cried out in anger and frustration. But even as they both tumbled forward off-balance amidst the rubble, Diana twisted and turned, and her golden lasso snapped through the air. With a grunt of urgent need, Diana looped it about Pegasus and her, pulling both together, face-up against his abdomen. Tugging on the lariat's ends with each hand, she slid along his underbelly, spreading her legs apart, to impale herself again on his still rigid member, with a cry of both pain and relief.

 

**********************************************

 

The golden lasso flashed like golden lightning in the storm, tightening instantly around Pegasus. Diana looped it around her wrist, and then hooked a leg around a taut length, drawing herself back astride the stallion's back. Driven by her will, the lasso stretched and encircled both of them, binding them securely to each other against the rage of the storm.

 

**********************************************

 

Pegasus spread his wing and swooped through the clouds, neighing loudly, while under him, Diana rocked back and forth, her legs squeezing against him with all her power just as her sex did the same to his phallus. She felt envious of the mares who could take all of him, as she wished she could take him, being hilted all the way to his scrotum. 

But she strove to do her best, driving herself harder and harder against his loins, gasping and moaning with effort and pleasure. Much as she had enjoyed the sensation of being physically overpowered by his strength while being mounted from behind, the added intimacy of being able to embrace him like this, with arms and legs, made her feel even closer to him, more deeply joined to him in the coupling, bonded into one by flesh and passion and the magic lasso while they rocketed through the endless sky. 

 

**********************************************

 

The winds were razor-sharp knives that lacerated her skin cruelly, and she dared not open her eyes. She embraced Pegasus with desperate strength, strength that would have crushed a lesser being, while the rage of the storm grabbed at them with murderous intent, dragging them into an abyss of nothingness.

 

**********************************************

 

Her voice caught in her voice as they climaxed together, so hard she almost lost consciousness, and there was nothing in the vast universe but the two of them, and the single instant of exquisite delight they shared, joined as one.

 

**********************************************

 

Suddenly there was silence, and stillness. Diana remained still, frowning with disbelief, wondering if they had both died, rent apart by wind and rain and lightning, and been transported to yet another level of existence. Then she opened her eyes. 

Pegasus held his wings still, but they remained floating effortlessly, centered in a pocket of perfect calm. Around them the storm raged unabated, spanning all that could be seen in any direction, but unable to touch the sphere of peace at its core.

 

**********************************************

 

Weakly, Diana smiled, letting her head fall back, her long wet hair flowing in the steady wind as they flew, still joined by lasso and flesh. 

"Oh, gods... You truly are a stallion, Pegasus. My stallion." 

She squirmed gently, slowly sliding up his length a few wet inches. He remained hard, and she had to use that.

"Now, you must start again. But this time, slowly. And gently. Very gently... Oh, I loved how you rode me, so hard, and wild, and..." She sighed, stroking his flank tenderly. "Aphrodite help me, being ridden like that long enough... may have actually tamed even this filly. But you need to go easier on others, dear. Much, much easier. Not everyone can take you as I did. Nor me as you did, either... But you don't need to. You don't need to rush. You can go slow, be gentle... Be careful... Be... Yes, oh, yes, like that..."

 

**********************************************

 

She felt the pulsing from inside the pouch, her hand aching from how tightly she had gripped it. Pegasus neighed, and following his gaze, Diana saw the gleaming fragment floating in the air a few feet before them.

She loosened the lasso and stretched forward, taking the amulet piece. It began to glow brighter, along with the ones inside the pouch when placed with them.

She floated off the stallion's back, keeping a hand on his neck, stroking him tenderly. "Thank you, Pegasus. For the ride. For everything."

He flapped his wings, rearing before her, and neighed, loud and clear. 

She smiled. "You can return to your fillies now, you stud. And be gentle with them, remember. Be careful. Hold back."

He would need to cross the storm again, and she was concerned, momentarily. But she knew his strength, and trusted him; trusted that surely nothing wrong would come to him, or from him. "But we must race again sometime. Maybe the winner will again... ride the loser. Or the other way around. And you won't need to hold back."

Pegasus shook his head, its silver mane flashing like a wave, while golden light wrapped around Diana, and then she was gone.

 

**********************************************

 

Hermes stood up, metal helmet in hand, and bowed elaborately towards Poseidon. 

"Such was my humble homage to my dear uncle: A most worthy offering to his bloodline."

Poseidon's beard rippled like sea foam as he smiled. "It was an... interesting liaison you arranged, Messenger. I am certainly pleased."

Aphrodite's eyes sparkled. "As was our dear Amazon, as well. Many times, too." 

"It was... surprising, at first," Hera said, re-arranging the mantle over her arm, as she shifted on her seat, uncrossing her legs. "But the Amazon certainly got... into it, with true enthusiasm."

"Oh, she really got into it. And it into her. So into her! Quite impressively."

Hera glanced coldly at her husband. "I expect someone did not get his mind into anyone else this time."

Zeus lifted his hands up in protest. "Will you get off my back? I swear by Me I did not ride anyone-!" 

"Our uncle's mighty scion rode the amazon well enough, though. Almost made me envious." Aphrodite smiled at Ares. "Of how well others are doing."

Ares rubbed his chin, frowning. "The amazon is full of surprises."

"Oh, quite full she was, yes."

Artemis stood up, pursing her mouth. "Stop that already! Could you be any more crude?"

Hermes spread his arms in conciliation. "Sister, I thought you would be pleased as well. Was it not an exciting chase? A most worthy contest and match? For both of those you favor?"

The goddess of the hunt and patron of beasts lifted an eyebrow. "It had its... appeal. It was as much a hunt as a race, yes. And Diana did not... disappoint."

Aphrodite leaned forward. "You gifted her with Communion With The Beasts, did you not, Artemis Agrotera, Potnia Theron? She put good use to it. Maybe you should, too."

"Maybe you should shut your-"

Athena raised a hand. "Bicker not, sisters. Diana met her challenge and prevailed." 

"Indeed," Hera agreed. "What if she was also... quickened?"

"That remains to be known. Even if not, the line of Pegasus is now to ensured to continue, at least through lesser mates." Athena turned to Hermes, allowing a hint of smile on her face. "Quite crafty, Messanger, all you did at once."

He bowed slightly at the compliment. "Multi-tasking is the new way of things, as you know."

"Indeed." Athena's grey eyes stared deep, while Hermes sat back, smiling, his winged helmet flashing silver. 

 

TO BE CONTINUED


End file.
